


Tell The World We Finally Got It All Right

by perfectdagger (sincerelyste), star_k



Series: Mistletoes & Wrackspurts [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Direction (Band)
Genre: (They finally got it all right in the end), (a ton of Fluff to be honest), (warning: small angst/couple argument scene you don't even need to worry), Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Blow Jobs, Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Light Bondage, M/M, Moving In Together, Muggle Louis, Riding, Smut, Tie Kink, Wizard Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-02-23 14:18:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 56,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13191867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelyste/pseuds/perfectdagger, https://archiveofourown.org/users/star_k/pseuds/star_k
Summary: Louis snorted. “Nice try but I have to work, you sneaky little bastard.” Louis kissed Harry quickly with the intention of it being the last time as he also squeezed their hands together before letting go. “Seriously, go. I…” Louis hesitated a second, not really sure what to say as his final goodbye to Harry. “I’ll be waiting for you.” He settle on that, because that was a promise he knew he would be holding on to.“Can’t wait. I love you,” Harry said, just as he had said that to Louis over the weekend many times. He finally let go of him and kissed Louis on the cheek, smiling brightly at him before he opened the door and got out of the car.Louis would also hold onto those three words until the weekend came along.Part 4 of theMistletoes & Wrackspurtsseries, or the year when Louis and Harry finally decided to give themselves a try, (re)falling in love and making memories for a life time.





	1. January 2016

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise, bitches! We bet you thought you saw the last of us ;P
> 
> Welcome back to another part of the M&W series! 
> 
> We obviously couldn't leave our favourite Muggle Louis and Wizard Harry behind and we needed to give them (and us and you) a well deserved happy and angst-free time after all they've been through haha We aren't that mean! Don't forget this series' motto, please. But we promise this will be full of fluff for you all to enjoy it as much as we did writing it!
> 
> If you haven't read the previous parts, mainly [**Part 3**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9863852), we highly suggest you to do it so you can understand a few things better (and if you already have, you can read again so you can remember it all :D)
> 
> As always, a massive thank you to our wonderful beta Sammie, who was just as excited as we were to get back to this story! Genny, for being our main cheerleader and Marcel #1 stan (we are even putting him as an actual character in the fic because THAT'S WHAT HE DESERVES) and also to everyone else who has been following the series for so long and has been waiting for something more from it, and lastly to anyone who will read this and will give kudos and leave us comments! We love you all!
> 
> The fic is already finished, but we will be posting the chapters as we beta them, so bear with us! It won't take us as long as it did with the previous parts, there will be only a few days between chapters, so stay tuned!  
>    
> So, without further ado, enjoy it!
> 
> Listen to the fic playlist [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/stephvicente/playlist/0CXo7wxTYW65LCdWNwaCnV?si=yeulAipNS8WsfKD9Y7upJA)!
> 
> Ste and Syn xx

Louis was pretty sure he wasn’t trembling because of the cold as he walked down the street. He wasn’t cold, that was the thing. Even though the temperature had been low just like the past few days, he was feeling just as warm as he had been inside his flat a few minutes ago.

There wasn’t a reason for him to feel cold since the spell Harry had cast around them was preventing him from feeling the sharp wind cutting through their faces on that Sunday morning. Also, Harry’s hand clasped against his was giving him enough warmth to keep him distracted from his slight trembling.

No, Louis wasn’t trembling because of the cold. Louis was trembling because Harry was beside him, after both of them had just apparated back in Doncaster, back at Louis’ house. He could be trembling because of the apparition itself, but he also knew it wasn’t just that. He still hadn’t apparated enough times to get used to it, but just like last time, apparating with Harry hadn’t been as bad as he thought it would be. He was also sure that it was only because Harry was with him that it hadn’t been that bad.

What was bad though, was that Louis was nervous and his nervousness was itching in the back of his mind, making him jitterish as both him and Harry took the final steps in front of his childhood home.

He knew he shouldn’t be like this because considering everything, there was nothing to worry about.

“You okay?” Louis turned his head to look at Harry, biting at his bottom lip.

“Honestly?” Harry looked back at Louis, a small smile on the corner of his mouth. “I’m okay, I’m just a little nervous, I guess.” He squeezed Louis’ hand.

Louis scoffed. “You don’t need to be, c’mon,” he rolled his eyes a bit, trying to disguise his own state. “It’s not like you’re meeting them for the first time, Harry.”

“No, of course it’s not. But it’s the first time I’m seeing them after… everything.” Harry gulped.

Louis inhaled deeply, because he could feel Harry’s insecurity in his eyes and even though they had already talked about it, had in fact spent almost two days talking about it (and everything else under the sun), he knew he couldn’t blame Harry for feeling the way he did. He was the same, not sure how his family would really react to him and Harry again.

Well, he knew they wouldn’t be harsh to them, especially not to Harry. He knew it because his own mother had reassured him when they finally spoke on the phone the day before. Louis had almost forgotten then that he had brought his phone with him when it started vibrating from inside his jeans that were still scattered on the floor of his bedroom once he had gotten out of the bathroom. He was quick to fetch it and sat on the bed to finally answer it, breathing heavily as he saw his mother’s name on the screen.

“Louis William Tomlinson, for the love of God, where have you been?”

He let out a faint laugh to hear Jay’s words in lieu of greeting him properly. He kind of deserved to be scolded like that by her, to be honest.

“Well, hello to you too and Happy New Year,” he spoke, trying to sound nonchalant.

“This is not a time to be funny, Louis,” Jay’s voice was really stern and he couldn’t blame her, “I thought you’d have the decency to let me know where you’ve gone to, but it’s been over a day Louis, what on Earth has gotten into you?”

“Sorry, mum,” he replied with a dash of guilt in his tone, because he knew he had been wrong to keep his mother in the dark about where he was and what he was doing. “I should’ve called, I know, I just… kinda forgot with everything else going on. I’m okay, though, I’m home in London.”

“You’re in London?!” Jay sounded exasperated. “What are you doing in London, why did you go back? And, most importantly what has gotten you so distracted that you’d forgotten about warning me you’d be going back? You simply disappeared! How, in God’s name, did you go back to London on New Year’s night, Louis?”

Louis fixed his still wet fringe over his forehead and closed his eyes for a second before he answered her back. “That’s a funny story, actually,” he laughed again, “I… we came back here.”

“We? Who’s we, Louis? I’m sure it’s not Lottie because she came back yesterday morning and she was just as lost on where you’d be as I was.”

“It’s Harry.” He decided to cut to the chase and just spill it out. As soon as he spoke he opened his eyes again to see Harry walking inside the room, a white towel around his middle just like the one Louis had on himself, and a smirk on his lips.

It took a moment for his mother to speak again. “Harry? Is… he there now? With you?”

“Yeah, he is.” Louis watched as Harry got the sweatpants and jumper he had conjured for himself the day before and started getting dressed.

“And are you going to explain to me how and why he’s there with you?” Jay wasn’t demanding anything and Louis could sense she was feeling more relaxed to know that new piece of information. “I mean, I’m not mad that you’re there with him. I’m just confused, love, that’s what. What happened?”

Harry looked back at Louis when he finished dressing himself and was putting his hair up in a bun. “Is that your mother?” There was a small frown on his brows as he walked closer to where Louis was sat on the bed.

Louis nodded, mouthing a “yeah” and quirking his lips into a smile.

“Do you want the short or long story?” He talked back to his mother as Harry approached him, his eyes not leaving Louis’ as he softly ran his fingers through Louis’ hair.

“I’m gonna go make breakfast while you talk to her, okay?” He moved his hand down to Louis’ face, caressing his cheek with his thumb.

“Okay,” Louis murmured before turning his face a bit to leave a gentle kiss on the inside of Harry’s palm.

He saw Harry’s eyes soften with the gesture and scrunching up his nose as he leaned down to kiss Louis on the cheek before he turned around to leave.

“You better tell me everything, Louis, or else I’ll be the one going to London at this very moment to get you to speak.”

And so he did. He told her about how Harry had appeared back in Doncaster on New Year’s Eve and they had talked in their back garden – Louis was very suspicious nobody had seen them talking outside, but he wouldn’t dwell on if that was actually true or not – and how they thought it was better to go back to London instead of getting in the way of his family’s celebrations (he wasn’t lying, but he also wasn’t going to tell her the real reason they had gone back to London. She might’ve figured it out by herself, she wasn’t naive, Louis knew his mother very well). He told her how they had been talking and trying to understand themselves, and be themselves around each other again and see how they could go from there.

Jay was comprehensive and listened to Louis, letting him know that what she had said just a few days before to him was still true: she would be there for Louis and would support him on whatever decision he’d make and if right now his decision was to try things again with Harry, then she’d be there with open arms to receive him back at her house. There wasn’t any judgmental tone in his mother’s speech and Louis already knew where she stood about him and Harry. She was glad they were finally getting their feelings sorted and she knew they would find a way to make things work, if that’s what they wanted.

Louis knew that too, and he was also glad about the way things with Harry seemed to be going, even as early as it was, even having spent just barely two days again with him, _really_ spending alone time with him. They had talked a lot, fucked some more, and then pillow talked even more. There wasn’t anyone there to blame them for being alone in Louis’ flat and not missing the opportunity to get to know each other again. It was not as if things were moving too fast, but both of them knew what they wanted and it was clear they wanted and missed each other, so, if they had spent most of Friday lazily in bed, finding it easier to say whatever they wanted while holding each other, it really wasn’t anyone’s business.

And after talking to Jay and promising they would go back to Doncaster on Sunday (because he obviously needed to get his things and car back), that was what they kept doing.

“Are you okay with going back to my mum’s?” Louis asked once they had finished breakfast and were lying on the couch watching the telly. Louis kept to himself the thought about how almost two weeks ago the situation they were on that same couch was very different.

“The question here is if she’s okay with me going back with you.” Harry ran his hand up and down Louis’ arm as Louis was lying in front of Harry with his back to his chest.

“I’ve already told you, Harry. She is fine, she’s not thinking badly of you in anyway. There’s no need to think she would. She was the one who first said that I should give you a chance. If anything, I bet she’s celebrating that we finally decided to stop being dickheads,” Louis chuckled and turned around to face Harry, bringing his hand to rest over Harry’s face.

“I know that, but still, it’s a bit terrifying. I can’t help but feel ashamed for how I left and for what I made you go thro–”

Louis interrupted Harry by locking their lips quickly. “We don’t need to go through that again, do we?”

“No, we don’t, but you know…” Harry inhaled deeply, pulling Louis closer to him by the waist. “It will be in the back of my head when I face your family again.”

“Better not think about it now, then,” Louis smiled a bit smugly, tangling his legs with Harry’s and kissing him again, deeply. “We still have time to worry about it, not that you have to worry at all, okay? You don’t.” He ran his hand down to Harry’s neck then to his hair, undoing his bun to thread his fingers in Harry’s long locks.

“And I think I know exactly how you want to make me not think about it, right?” Harry laughed as he squeezed Louis’ waist before tucking his hand under Louis’ jumper.

“You’ve got a better idea than mine?” Louis bit down on Harry’s bottom lip as he slightly pulled on Harry’s curls.

“If your idea involves the couch, I’d much rather take you to the bedroom.”

Louis smirked before getting up from the couch in a jolt, standing looking down at Harry’s flushed face. “I think I do like your idea better.” He winked at Harry and turned around, heading to his room, knowing Harry was only a few steps behind following him.

“You are insufferable and insatiable,” Harry said as he enveloped Louis by the waist and brought both of them down onto the bed once he caught up with Louis.

Louis couldn’t even be ashamed of taking things to bed again. It didn’t feel wrong, that was the thing. Since Thursday night, nothing they had done seemed to be wrong. It felt too right, if Louis was being honest. It had been too long since Louis had felt that way, and with Harry it just seemed like they fit together, even though they hadn’t been together in a long time. They were relearning things and finding again how they clicked and it wasn’t difficult when they seemed to be on the same page, wanting the same thing.

Nothing felt wrong when Louis got Harry around him, telling him how much he had missed that, how much he loved Louis, losing themselves in one another as both of them reached their climax, over and over. Even when Louis still couldn’t voice his feelings, it didn’t seem wrong that they were reconnecting in all the right ways.

That’s why he shouldn’t be nervous to go back to his house with Harry in tow. There wasn’t a reason to be anxious when he knew his family would support them, especially when they had been the ones to basically tell them that they should solve their problems. He shouldn’t be nervous because he knew that what they were doing wasn’t a rushed or an impulsive decision. They had discussed what they wanted and it was mutual, and they were going for trying and giving themselves a real shot.

It was scary of course, and maybe that was what was giving Louis the jitters. Maybe making it real now, outside of their two-day bubble immersed in each other was the scariest part. Because when it was only the two of them, everything looked perfect and flawless, they seemed to have gotten everything figured out. Now, facing other people and showing that they were really trying, that was the real big deal.

“It’s all water under the bridge now, Haz,” Louis inhaled deeply, trying to pull himself together and get his worries under control to show Harry that everything was alright. “We are the only ones allowed to have a say in anything that happened and as I said before, I wouldn’t be surprised if they received us with a massive party,” he laughed nervously as he turned his whole body to be in front of Harry, getting both his hands in his. “I’m nervous too, to be honest, but only because facing them means I have to face real life and it kinda feels like what we shared these past couple of days was almost surreal, you know, magical.” He tried to joke, to humor Harry.

“Yeah, me too,” Harry smiled at him, “but this is not like a spell, it won’t go away that easily, Lou. We talked about it, right? We’re in this together to see where it leads and we’ll try. I’ll try, I promise.”

Louis didn’t want to have another conversation about it, not right there as he was about to enter his family’s house. He only stepped closer to Harry to press their lips together to reassure him that he understood what Harry was saying and to let him know he wasn’t alone in that too. Louis would try as well.

“Now, let’s go face my family and their prying questions. That’s the real scary thing in there, those nosy bunch of girls.” Louis broke the kiss, laughing as Harry nodded and let go of one of Louis’ hands to ring the doorbell.

Louis wasn’t surprised that it was Lottie the one to answer the door. Nor was he surprised that her first reaction was to slap both of them repeatedly on the chest and then on the head before pulling them into a hug.

“I swear to Merlin, if you pull anything like this again, I will curse both of you so badly I won’t even mind going to Azkaban for it,” she threatened, squeezing them in her arms tightly.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Louis managed to say at the same time he heard Harry murmuring a “Thank you” on Lottie’s other side. He had to contain himself from smiling widely at the thought that if it weren’t for his little sister, he would’ve let his stubbornness drive him and Harry away again.

“Yeah, thank you,” he repeated after Harry when Lottie let go of them. Louis fondly looked at Harry as they shared a glance and smiled at each other.

“You’ll have plenty of time to thank me for basically being your Fairy Godmother, Cupid or whatever,” she chuckled. “Now, come on in you two. Everyone is waiting for you.”

And indeed they were. It was less scary than Louis thought it would be, but there was much more commotion than expected. The twin girls were jumping excitedly around Harry, telling him how happy they were that he was back while Jay hugged Louis. Fizzy simply looked up from the book she had been reading and shot Harry and Louis a very cocky look and said “It was about time”. Louis rolled his eyes and approached her to mess with her hair as she poked her tongue out at him. The moment Louis had distracted himself with Fizzy, his mother got her chance to talk to Harry and Louis had to try to contain everything in himself not to swoon at the sight of Jay tenderly speaking to him, both hands on his face as Harry nodded at her. Louis couldn’t hear what they were speaking with the sound of the baby twins coming to the living room with Dan, but when he saw Jay and Harry hugging, that was enough to calm himself and know that things would be fine.

What Louis had to have an even bigger control over was the fondness to see the babies running to Harry, pulling at his long coat so he could give them attention while they babbled “‘Arry!!!’” over and over until Harry gave in and sat on the floor to hug both Ernest and Doris. He didn’t even mind once again that their siblings were giving Harry all their attention and had barely noticed him. It was there, watching Harry interact with his family once more in the same way he had done the previous week, that Louis realized he didn’t need to worry much about how to fit Harry again in his life. He had already fit in there without much effort, it was only up to them to make it work this time.

The rest of the day passed too quickly with the whole family having lunch and then Lottie and Louis gathering their belongings to get ready to drive back to London.

Before leaving, he saw Harry talking to Jay and Dan, getting a pat on the back from his stepfather and another tight hug from his mother. Louis braced himself to walk towards them as Harry moved to say his goodbyes to his siblings.

“I think it’s not necessary to say this again, but I just want to really apologise to you, you know, for how I’ve been during the week and mostly for disappearing and all that. Just so we’re clear that I’m really sorry I worried you both.” Louis sighed deeply as he faced his parents.

“Louis, we understand, okay?” Dan spoke first. “It could’ve been better if you had warned your mother before disappearing, but we now know it was for… better reasons.” Louis could see a small smirk on the corner of Dan’s lips and cheerfulness in his eyes.

“And don’t worry, Lou. What matters is that things are sorted out now, or are starting to sort themselves out. If that’s what you want and if that’s what will make you feel better, then it’s all good, even though there were rough patches. Life wouldn’t teach us anything if it was meant to be easy.” Jay smoothed Louis’ arm up and down with her hand.

“Yeah, I know,” Louis nodded at them. “We don’t know how things will be from now on, but it’s a start, right?” He shrugged slightly, quickly looking behind himself to watch Harry with both babies in his arms, spinning them around with him, making them giggle.

“It’s something, Lou, yes,” Jay embraced him in a hug and Dan joined them. “Now, take care of yourself, okay? Anything you need, just call us and please, for the love of God, do call me the moment you three arrive in London, right?” They untangled themselves and Louis could see her distinctive motherly look.

“Yes, Ma'am.” Louis chuckled, lifting his arm and saluting her with his three fingers pressed against his head in a funny way, then started walking towards the doorway, Jay and Dan following him behind. “Lottie, Haz, let’s go?” He called them from the front door, sure that not only Harry and Lottie would be coming over, but also the rest of his siblings.

They shared their last goodbyes with the whole family and got inside the car, hitting the road back to London in the late afternoon. This time, their road trip wasn’t heavy with the weight of uncertainty and a tension Louis didn’t know where to place. Now, as Harry was again in the passenger spot beside Louis and with Lottie in the backseat, talking freely and listening to music again, Louis was feeling carefree and the only nervousness he had was about what would happen once they had to go back to their daily lives.

Louis didn’t let himself think much about it as they reached London. If anything, he still had one more day to spend with Harry and that was not the time to start worrying about things that could taint their last moments together.

One thing he should’ve worried before, though, was getting back to his flat to a very confused Liam.

The moment he opened the flat door and stepped inside the small hallway and saw the lights turned on, he knew he had fucked up. He was a hundred percent sure he and Harry had turned off the lights when they left in the morning, but when he noticed the state they had left the place, he realized that he didn’t consider the fact that Liam had said he would be back on Sunday too.

“Why the fuck didn’t you answer your phone, you fucker?” Liam skipped any warm greetings towards Louis the moment they got inside, harshly stomping his feet towards Louis but abruptly stopping in his tracks when he saw Lottie and Harry behind him.

“I was driving, Liam, what the fuck,” Louis replied, in the same tone, only so not to sound too guilty.

“Harry?” Liam’s thick brows were knitted together, looking past Louis and focusing on the tall figure behind him.

“Er, hey Liam.”

Louis could feel Harry trying to be nonchalant too, but Lottie’s snickering behind them wasn’t helping.

“Okay, there’s too much going on right now, I need to sit down because I’m about to have another stroke in less than an hour.” Liam turned around and went back to where he had come from in the living room.

Louis followed him as carefully as he could, Lottie and Harry following his steps.

“Right, I was going to mention this little thing to you…” Louis started talking, tentatively as he sat beside Liam on the couch.

“Little thing?” Liam looked up, a bit outraged, letting his hands fall from where they were holding his head. “I mean, just a few days ago you were crying to me on the phone about how Harry was gone…”

Louis let out a heavy sigh because God bless Liam Payne for subtleness, but well. He quickly shared a glance with Harry, mouthing him a “sorry.”

“And now he’s back here with you?” Liam continued, “I mean, I’m mostly shocked, that’s it. Excuse me for my reaction, but, Goddamn it, Louis, warn a friend first, your best mate, mind ya, about the quick developments in your love life, maybe?” Liam chuckled humourless. “I guess it’s all okay then, this is a good thing that you’re here, right?” He looked at Harry and Louis followed his gaze to see Harry giving him a small shrug. “But I’ve been stressed for over an hour, because apparently someone broke into our flat?”

Louis almost choked on thin air to hear Liam’s assumption to what had happened to their place. He was trying to control himself when he heard Lottie snort and Harry let out a dry cough from where they were standing.

“What?!” Liam looked back at Louis even more confused than before.

“Nobody broke into our flat, Payno. That was me and Harry.” Once again, Louis opted to say the plain truth to avoid rounding his own friend.

“You and Harry? How? Louis, weren’t you in Doncaster this whole time?”

Fuck, Louis should’ve thought better about how to tell Liam that he and Harry had come back to London for the past couple of days without having to say that they had in fact magically showed up.

Harry must’ve noticed Louis’ mistake because he was quick to speak first.

“I was in London after I left their house,” he started and Louis could see he wasn’t so sure about what he was saying, probably still trying to make up whatever it was to cover any story, “and I tried to get in touch with Louis on the New Year’s and he decided to listen to me, so he came to London and we talked and we ended up coming and staying over here, sorry we forgot to warn you. Eventually Louis would have to go back to Doncaster to pick up Lottie and their stuff, so we kinda left in a hurry. We didn’t think of leaving the flat as neat as it was before. Sorry about that too.”

Louis felt the immense urge to just get up and kiss Harry for coming up with that. Instead, he kept looking at Harry with the most fond expression. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Lottie smugly smiling at them.

“Oh,” Liam spoke after a few moments in silence, looking from Harry to Louis. “Jesus, okay, yeah. Thank God nobody actually broke into the place then. I was panicking so much and even more because you wouldn’t pick up the phone, Louis. I was about to call the police,” he let out a relieved sigh. “Luckily you arrived so we could have this sorted out then, but…” he turned his body fully to Louis and smacked him on the arm, “fuck you Tommo for not letting me know what was going on.” Louis cried out at the dash of pain from Liam’s attack. Liam shook his head, laughing loudly, way more relaxed than before. “And you,” he continued, pointing his index finger at Harry, “I should scold you for what happened before but as I see you two are on good terms, I’ll spare you that. Just let me tell you one thing, then: It took you long enough, you dumbfucks.”

He got up from the couch and took a few steps into Harry’s direction, wrapping his arms around him. Louis saw Harry be taken by surprise by Liam’s gesture and he laughed in return.

“Okay, Liam, enough with the dramatics,” Louis stood up too, “everything is alright now.”

“If you say so,” Liam let go of Harry and shot them both a demanding look. “But I’m watching you out so you don’t do anything stupid again.”

“I…” Harry was a bit dumbfounded to speak, probably not expecting Liam to be the one to give him the “parent talk”.

“C’mon, Liam, they are fine or on the way of being, anyway,” Lottie spoke up, winking at Louis and Harry. “I wouldn’t be standing here if I thought they weren’t.”

“Alright then, now that we have everyone’s blessing apparently, can we move on and just eat something?” He walked closer to Harry, putting an arm around his waist in a half hug. Harry retributed the gesture, squeezing Louis back tightly.

“Please!” Lottie agreed, moving to get their luggage they had left in the hallway.

With that, they got settled in the apartment again and ordered some pizza because it seemed that in the span of two days Louis and Harry had managed to eat all the food they had bought prior to going back to Doncaster before Christmas.

It felt much like the first night Harry had apparated with Lottie, but again, completely different. Once they all fell into friendly chatting mostly about Liam’s holidays, it wasn’t charged with any tension or complicated feelings between any of them. This time, it felt even more real than it had been to be with Harry and his family. It really felt like Louis could have this everyday, the people he cared about the most spending a nice Sunday night together.

It also felt like that first night when Lottie mentioned the sleeping arrangements again, but now not only suggesting where they should sleep, but imposing that Harry and Louis would spend the night in Louis’ bedroom. Liam simply wiggled his brows at them when Lottie bossily stared at them.

“I just beg you not you let me hear anything, please.” She gave Harry a pointed look and Louis understood what she meant. He almost wanted to bury his face inside a hole on the floor from embarrassment.

“I so agree with that, otherwise I’m taking Harry to my bedroom myself to make sure you both stay very quiet during the night.” Liam joked.

“Oi Leeyum! Keep your hands off my man, will ya?” Louis spoke jokingly, as he dragged a startled Harry by the hand towards his room. “We’ll behave and you guys mind your own business, goodnight!” He said lastly before he closed his bedroom door, not really caring how harsh he sounded.

Of one thing he was sure: he and Harry were together. They hadn’t really gotten into the specifics of how that would work, how their relationship would go from there. They had discussed that they wanted each other and wanted to be together, but maybe they were delaying actually talking about being in a proper relationship, about being boyfriends again because it was a bit terrifying, too afraid to break the bubble they had been in.

They would have to talk about it, eventually and real soon because time was running out for them. In the morning, Lottie and Harry would have to go back to Hogwarts.

Louis sighed heavily as he settled on his bed after washing up and changing into his pajamas and Harry did the same. He got under the duvet lying on his back and Harry managed to turn off the lights with a flick of his wand, placing it on the nightstand beside him right after. He then lay beside Louis, turning on his side and putting his arm around Louis’ middle, snuggling closer to him.

“You okay?” He asked and even in the darkness of the room, Louis could see his piercing green eyes looking attentively at him.

“Yeah. It’s just… today has been a lot,” Louis scoffed faintly. He put his hand on top of Harry’s, rubbing over it with his thumb.

“It was,” Harry laughed shortly, leaving a kiss on Louis’ cheek, “but it was better than I was anticipating and I’m glad everyone was alright with us coming back together and I’m glad we’re okay.” He nuzzled his nose along Louis’ cheekbones down to his jaw.

Louis let himself enjoy the caress before getting the courage to speak up what had been in his mind the whole day. Indeed they were okay and things were fine so far and he didn’t want to spoil anything, but they had agreed that the most important thing about them being together was speaking up instead of keeping their feelings to themselves, so, even if he wasn’t happy to bring up the subject, he needed to.

“How are we gonna do this, though?” He turned his head to face Harry properly. He saw Harry had furrowed his brows for a second before he relaxed and his hand started smoothing over Louis’ clothed belly.

“We don’t have many options other than to try what we used to do in the past?” There was a bit of hesitation in his tone as he suggested it, Louis could notice and he knew where it was coming from. He knew that Harry was thinking the same as him: _but that was how things went to shit_. That was before, though; there was a huge difference to how they were now and in reality, that was not why things went wrong. There was a lot that had to be taken into consideration for what had happened.

“It shouldn’t sound so difficult, right?” Louis turned his full body to stay on his side, “I mean, it feels like we’re doing exactly what we did before, but we’re not the same, Haz and we’re talking and we are actually aware of what we want and we want this, don’t we? It might look like it’s doomed to go the same way if we start it like before, but... It’s not the same. We’ve grown up since then.” Louis said, trying not only to convince Harry but also himself.

“You’re right,” Harry kissed the slope of Louis’ nose, making Louis squirm a little. “And there isn’t anything actually in our way this time. I can come and go as much more easily than I did those times. I don’t have a curfew, we don’t have to hide from anyone and I can stay over as long as I want, as you want…” Harry trailed off a bit, tapping his fingers slightly on the curve of Louis’ waist.

“I’ll sure want you spending as much time as you can here, don’t doubt that, okay?” Louis got his hand to Harry’s face, pinching Harry’s ears between his fingers. “If we’re gonna do this, then we just gotta do it properly.”

“Right,” Harry smiled, getting closer to Louis’ to kiss him briefly. “So, we’re doing it, yeah.” He sighed contently.

“It seems so.” Louis started kissing Harry’s face, then down to his neck, more with lazy pecks almost tickling him than actually kissing.

“Everything?” Harry giggled as Louis’ hands travelled down his arm to his back, continuously tickling him. “Weekends together, going out properly, letters during the week, Marcel being cocky because he’s getting to spend more time with you than me?”

Louis snorted as he pinched Harry’s love handles under his shirt. “Does he really get cocky, _after all this time_?”

Harry tried to shrug, squirming closer to Louis. “He’s very possessive of you. He gave me the worst cold shoulder treatment when I went back to Hogwarts because he had to leave Doncaster.”

“Oh, poor thing,” Louis started nibbling at Harry’s neck again, but this time his hands slipped further down Harry’s body, passing through the inside of his sweatpants to squeeze Harry’s bum. “I’ll make sure he knows he does have a special place in my life next time I see him.”

“Are you really talking about my owl while grabbing my butt?” Harry laughed, trying to push Louis away playfully.

“Alright, I’ll stop, you big arse oaf,” Louis held Harry by his waist making him stay steady. “We do have to talk about Marcel, though.” He looked at Harry, a bit more serious now. “Liam will notice if he keeps seeing Marcel here every week again. He might be oblivious to some things, but it won’t be hard to join the dots.”

Harry chewed on his bottom lip before he spoke. “Okay, yeah. We can find another way, maybe, I don’t know, instead of him coming here, he could go to your school?”

Louis considered it for a moment, because it wasn’t really a bad idea. If Marcel managed to appear during his lunch break, while Louis was somewhere outside the school taking a smoke, nobody would notice.

“It could work, perhaps.” Louis locked his lips with Harry’s again, his hand going back to the spot on Harry’s neck, his fingers playing with the hair on the back.

“We can make it work, yeah,” Harry corrected him, pecking on his lips once more and biting at it softly.

“Yeah,” Louis answered in a half moan, which instigated Harry to pull Louis’ body closer to his. “And now that we are done talking about owls, can I go back to what I was doing before?” He let his hand run down again to Harry’s arse, earning a loud cackle from Harry. “Shhh, or else Lottie will come barging in and complain about our noises or somewhat.” Louis joked as Harry started kissing his neck up to is ear and nibbling on his earlobe.

“That won’t be a problem,” he whispered before he distanced himself from Louis a little, turning around to fetch his wand and pointing it at the door saying “ _Silencio_ ” and then turning his attention back to Louis. “Done.” He smirked as he rolled over on top of him.

Louis didn’t have time to respond with more than an eye roll and half a laugh before Harry dived in to start kissing him with purpose.

Louis preferred to let himself go and enjoy the time he still had with Harry than to overthink the fact that they wouldn’t have much time like this again so soon. Soon as in a week-time if he and Harry really worked on seeing each other like they used to in the past, so there wasn’t much for Louis to worry. What he needed to worry was about not letting himself get too caught up on only wanting to spend time with Harry.

He needed to relearn how to live his life with Harry and with the limitations that were implied. This time around though, he knew it should be easier than before. It didn’t mean he still didn’t have insecurities about how this whole thing would go, but once again, they were working on it and it was only the beginning.

And it really felt like the beginning when the next morning, a busy London Monday with people going back to their routines after the Holidays, Louis was dropping off Harry and Lottie at King’s Cross before heading to work.

Lottie had gotten out of the car first, with the excuse that she couldn’t wait to meet up with Danny again, but Louis knew very well she was only trying to give them privacy (or maybe she was too eager to know if Tommy had come with his sister to the Station).

“So,” Harry turned to him on the passenger seat after unbuckling his seat belt, “I’ll send Marcel on Wednesday and you let me know if it’s fine for me to come on Saturday?” Harry bit down on his lip as he looked expectantly at Louis with shiny green eyes.

“It will be completely fine, Harry, don’t worry.” Louis reassured him.

“Well, I don’t know, maybe you’ll find some other plans, other things to do…” He trailed off, puckering his lip between his index and thumb.

“Harry,” Louis led his hand to Harry’s arm to lower it and entwine their fingers together. “I won’t change my mind about this.”

“Okay,” Harry answered, smiling at Louis.

Louis smiled back and got closer to him. “And just so you are sure that I’m very serious about us, I’m gonna leave you with this: I’m very much looking forward to our first official real date.” Louis opened a smirk at Harry, leaning in and locking their lips before Harry could say anything.

Harry let Louis deepen the kiss, their tongues briefly meeting before he broke them apart. “Now you’re leaving me anxious, that’s what.” He laughed, as he placed his hand on Louis’ neck, securing him closer.

“It’s just something to keep you looking forward to, okay?” Louis pecked him on the lips again.

“I will and I can’t wait ‘till Saturday.”

“Me too,” Louis smiled one last time at him, meeting Harry’s green eyes full of glee and expectation. “Now you go, you don’t wanna miss the train back to Hogwarts.” Louis tried to pull away and distance himself from Harry, but Harry’s grip on his neck didn’t let him.

Harry had a mischievous look on his eyes before he spoke again. “I could stay right here where we are and simply apparate back at school late at night, you know.”

Louis snorted. “Nice try but I have to work, you sneaky little bastard.” He kissed Harry quickly with the intention of it being the last time as he also squeezed their hands together before letting go. “Seriously, go. I…” Louis hesitated a second, not really sure what to say as his final goodbye to Harry. “I’ll be waiting for you.” He settle on that, because that was a promise he knew he would be holding on to.

“Can’t wait. I love you,” Harry said, just as he had said that to Louis over the weekend many other times. He finally let go of him and kissed Louis on the cheek, smiling brightly at him before he opened the door and got out of the car.

Louis would also hold onto those three words until the weekend came along.


	2. February 2016

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!  
> We hope you all enjoyed the Holidays with your loved ones!  
> Now back to our favourite lover boys :D

The loud chatter from the kids during playtime at the school’s patio was barely audible from where Louis was standing in the car park, resting his back against the same old tree he’d made his designated waiting spot for Marcel every Wednesday for the past weeks.

He took his phone out from his pocket with one hand as he held his cigarette with the other, giving it a last drag before he checked the time. He had established he would only smoke one cig during his wait, enough to distract himself from his idle time. He was controlling himself since he had started smoking less in the past month, which was an improvement and also a counter effect for how much he had chain smoked during the Holiday break. There wasn’t a necessity for that anymore. The reason why he had done that was basically the same one which was making him back down from his vice – Harry.

Not that Harry had complained about his smoking – he hadn’t even said anything, but Louis could notice Harry’s apparent discomfort every time Louis would go to the window of his flat to take a drag while Harry was with him or when they were walking on the street on the weekends, waiting in line for the movies, or at a restaurant and Louis would lit one up just because it still itched him to do so, out of habit.

Louis wasn’t stopping because of Harry per se, but because spending time with Harry made him have other things on his mind rather than to smoke the way he did before. It was because being with Harry had brought a different pace to Louis’ life, one in which he didn’t have much to worry anymore, one in which Harry made Louis feel better in a lot of ways. It was not that his life had been bad before Harry had come back, but Louis couldn’t deny how different it was to have him again, how since the moment he stepped with Lottie at his doorstep, even with the small predicaments they had gone through afterwards, he knew his life wouldn’t be the same, he wouldn’t feel the same.

It was too soon to talk about how much his life had changed with Harry back in it. It had been barely a month since they had decided to give themselves a try in some kind of long-distance relationship once again. Louis felt much like he did when he was 20 and he was still in Uni and Harry in his last year at Hogwarts. He felt young and overjoyed, which is what someone expects for the beginning of any relationship, he’d reason with himself. He wasn’t complaining about it; if anything he was overwhelmed that it was going so well. The fear of how they would do it again, now in a different reality than it had been in the past was still in the back of Louis’ mind, he couldn’t deny. Their lives were different, they had different concerns, jobs to focus on, but still, every time they had met on the weekends over the past four weeks helped Louis see that they were doing the right things so far, being careful to carry their relationship as best as they could.

And it was working, much better than before, because this time they could go about their meetings and dates more freely around others – no more hiding from Liam neither from Lottie (of course they weren’t completely free because there was still one thing, Harry’s magic, they had to keep a secret from Liam, but that wasn’t so difficult since most of the times they had the flat for themselves the whole weekend when Liam would go out and spend time with his own girlfriend), but also with things that would reminisce their good times, such as a very content Marcel who was able to come visit Louis again every week at school where Louis knew nobody would bother or question him.

They were heading to a good start, one in which they still had a lot to fix and insecurities to deal with, but all in all, Louis couldn’t deny that being back with Harry had been one of the best things that had happened in a long time. He made sure to show that to Harry time and time again, be it properly taking Harry out on the first weekend after they had gone back to work after the Holidays, or with the small gestures when it was only the two of them alone in Louis’ flat, and especially by treating Harry with an exceptional date to celebrate his 22nd birthday the previous weekend.

Louis had never taken himself as the romantic type. The only real romantic gestures he had ever put a lot of effort into had actually been done when he was with Harry when they were younger. Harry had been the only one he felt that pull, that feeling he couldn’t quite figure out where it came from, but that made him want to do anything to show how much he felt for him. This time, it was preparing a meal himself for them and filling the flat with precisely 22 candles which he made Harry blow out each one of them as they made their way towards Louis’ bedroom, whispering to Harry every reason why he cherished him with every blown candle, that Louis realized he wouldn’t have done anything like this for anyone else.

It almost felt like too much, and Louis also felt too much as he fucked Harry, treating him as tenderly as he could but also giving it to him like he wanted, harder and faster. To hear Harry taking it all, panting against him, holding on to Louis so tight he scratched his back in deep, red lines as he moaned how much he loved him and was so lucky to have him back, that no one felt as good as Louis did... It were moments like those that had Louis aching, almost ready to finally reciprocate those three words, especially when they were coming down from the high, still clung to each other and breathing in deep to the other's scent.

There was no doubt Louis loved Harry and he showed it with every little thing he did to Harry, and for him, but still, the words wouldn’t come out as he wished they could, just so Harry knew that Louis was on the same page as him, just as committed as he was. Harry didn’t seem to mind that though; he never showed any sign of being disappointed or bothered with Louis because of his unsaid words. They knew they had to take their time to find their own feelings and pace in the relationship. Nonetheless, Louis wished he was already where Harry was and if it wasn’t worrying Harry, Louis was overthinking for them both.

It wasn’t until they were lying in bed after Louis pampered Harry some more in the shower on Saturday night that he got Louis to feel even more nervous, but for a different reason this time.

Louis knew Harry was tired but he still seemed restless, even with Louis holding him as he spooned him from behind, Harry’s fingers drumming on Louis’ arms or tangling and untangling themselves with Louis’.

“Haz, is there anything wrong?” Louis asked a bit hesitant, because he didn’t want to think about Harry not enjoying the surprise he had put out for him. He kissed the back of Harry’s neck trailing down to his shoulder blades, which made Harry squeeze Louis’ arms around him and let out a deep sigh.

“No, nothing wrong, Lou. Everything is perfect, I loved it.” He turned in Louis’ arms to look at him with a smile on his face, but Louis could see there was an uncertainty in his eyes.

“Glad you liked it,” Louis beamed in return, his hand moving to caress Harry on his cheek, “but I can feel there’s something bugging you. Do you wanna say anything?” Louis had learned to be the one to always instigate himself or Harry to talk about how they were feeling, even if it still terrified him, but at least he was trying to make up from his own mistakes.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment and Louis could see he was chewing on the inside of his cheeks. “There isn’t anything actually bugging me. I do wanna tell you something, but I’m not sure how you’ll react to it.”

“Is it about something I did today? Harry, you can be honest with me if you didn’t like any–”

“Louis, no!” Harry was quick to interrupt Louis, pressing their lips together. “This isn’t about today, no. Today has been perfect, you’re amazing and gave me the best birthday gift ever. What I want to talk about has nothing to do with what you did, but…” His gaze was far away for a second, his hand running through Louis’ hair now, fingers massaging the back of his head. “It does have to do with my birthday, though.” He focused back on Louis, nervously gulping and staring right at Louis’ eyes.

Louis frowned. “What is it, love?”

Harry sighed heavily again, licking his lips before finally speaking. “My mum had asked me if I would go home this weekend so they could celebrate my birthday.”

“Harry!” Louis let go of him, putting a distance between them, a bit in shock. “Please tell me you did not ditch your family to spend time with me.” He looked at Harry in disbelief.

“You had already said you wanted to make something special for me when they asked, I couldn't say no to you,” Harry reached out to Louis again, enveloping him by the waist, “and it’s not like they would actually miss spending time with me. It’s my first birthday with you back in my life, I’m sorry for wanting to spend it with you.” He shrugged unashamedly, kissing Louis on the cheek.

Louis inhaled deeply. “Hey, it’s alright, I get it,” he caressed Harry’s bicep up and down. “It’s just… I don’t want it to look like you are dismissing them for me.”

“They don’t think that, okay? My mum totally understood it and…” There it was again, that uncertain look on Harry’s face and Louis wondered what it was that was making Harry so nervous to talk about that involved his family, especially if it seemed they were okay with him and Louis being together. “If anything, what they, _she,_ don’t get is why I haven’t taken you to spend time with them too.”

Louis stilled for a moment at Harry’s declaration.

“Oh,” that was all he managed to let out, looking at Harry without knowing what else to say.

“Yeah,” Harry chewed on his lips as he squeezed Louis in his embrace.

They stared at each other, a moment of silence hanging between them while Louis’ mind was starting to panic a little.

It was not that he hadn’t considered meeting Harry’s family, it was only that… they had only been doing this for a month. Surely, people dating usually got to meet the parents soon, if they were really committed, but not that soon. And he and Harry were, but their situation was different, starting with the fact that Harry didn’t need to meet Louis’ family, he had known them since he was 15.

Louis, on the other hand, had never met Harry’s wizard family. And that was a lot and probably one of the most terrifying aspects for him, because not only did Louis not know them but he didn’t know what they thought of him, what they thought about what happened between him and Harry in the past. Plus, the small detail that they were _Harry’s wizard family_ and he was the _muggle boyfriend_.

Even more terrifying was the thought that meeting Harry’s family would make their relationship a hundred percent real. Not that it hadn’t been for the past month, but it did feel like they were still in their honeymoon phase and, Louis had overcome some insecurities and concerns about them, but now there was something else to worry about. He’d have to worry about how he was seen by Harry’s parents and his sister when before that hadn’t been a big deal for him, hadn’t even crossed his mind.

“Please, Louis, say something,” Harry’s concerned voice brought Louis back from his own thoughts.

Louis gulped dryly, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath before he spoke. “Do you want me to meet your family?”

“Of course I do,” Harry pecked on his lips again quickly, sounding a little more relaxed. “Louis, I’ve wanted it since last time, if I’m being honest. I don’t know why we held ourselves back back then, but we were younger and not really sure what was going on, but now…” he searched for Louis’ hand to hold in his own, “we know better and I want them to know you, I want them to know that we are together and that you make me happy,” he gently brought their linked hands up to kiss Louis’ knuckles. “I know this is a huge step for us, but I want it all with you, Lou, but if this is too much too soon for you, we can wai–”

Louis didn’t let Harry continue to speak because, no, he wouldn’t let him think he wasn’t in it for everything either.

“I want it too, okay? At first I thought it’d be intimidating to meet your parents, but we are doing this, right? There’s no reason why I wouldn’t want to meet them when I want you in my life and I want to be in yours completely. And it’s only fair and about time for me to meet them since you’ve known my family for so long already. Can’t say I’m not anxious to know what they think about me, about everything, but…” Louis squeezed their hands together before letting them go and bringing his to hold Harry by the face, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. “Yeah, we can do it.”

Harry smiled at him after he pulled back. “There’s nothing to worry about what they think of you, Lou. What I think about you and what I want with you is what matters. You making me happy is the most important thing, that’s what my mum said,” Harry nuzzled his nose against Louis’. “She’ll love to meet you too and they’ll be so glad that you want to met them as well.” He didn’t wait another second for Louis’ answer and kissed him again, going in for a deeper one this time.

It helped Louis settle his shaky feelings for a bit, Harry already knowing how to make Louis feel better with his touch. It didn’t mean that for the rest of the weekend when they then planned how they would go to Holmes Chapel on the following one, and during the next days while Louis would have to wait for Harry’s letters through Marcel, that he didn’t let his thoughts eat him up about finally meeting the Styles.

Even as nervous as he was, he had controlled his smoking that week. He couldn’t deny though that as the clock was approaching the usual time Marcel arrived at school, he didn’t feel the need to take another cigarette from his pack and smoke one more. He contained himself, especially because as he pocketed his phone again, blowing out the smoke he had inhaled and looked up at the cloudy sky above him, he saw his favourite grey owl flying towards him.

Marcel landed on the lowest branch of the tree, just about Louis’ head and chirped as Louis took the envelope he was carrying in his hands, throwing the butt of his almost finished fag on the ground and stepped on it. He then got a plastic package from inside his jacket pocket which was filled with blueberries and strawberries and offered them to Marcel.

“Hey, pal, how are we doing today?” He watched as Marcel pecked at the fruits in his palm quickly, probably hungry after having flown such long distance. “What has your owner gotten to say to me today? Do you think he could sense how much of a fucking wreck I am to meet his parents and decided to call this thing off?” Louis scoffed as Marcel finished eating and then looked at him, almost with a reprehensive expression in his big orange eyes.

He hooted out loud and flapped his wings at Louis, who only shook his head at the bird. “I’m not backing down from my word, okay? No need to be rude, c’mon. I’m doing it and I want to do it, it’s just… scary.” Louis felt a bit self conscious to be opening up to his boyfriend’s magical owl in the middle of his work’s car park but at least there wasn't anyone there to judge him.

Marcel cocked his head at Louis, letting out a small coo.

“You can’t say anything, you’re biased. You already know them, but I don’t and it’s scary as fuck to meet the family, even more when they are bunch of wizards, that’s it. But there are things we have to do even though we are afraid, right?” Louis leaned back against the tree again, turning the envelope he had gotten from Marcel in his hands. “I hope they are all as nice as you are, Marce.” He looked up at the owl with a small smile on his lips only to see Marcel scratching his beak at his wings and knew that he shouldn’t expect a real answer from a bird.

He sighed, finally opening up Harry’s letters.

_Dear Lou,_

_How have you been, love? I hope the beginning of your week has been great! I surely started mine in a great mood, thanks to you, of course. Thanks for the weekend, it was incredible and unforgettable._

_It also had a great start with my students throwing me a birthday breakfast on Monday, can you believe it? The Great Hall was decorated with all birthday party related things, thanks to your sister! And I found out McGonagall also helped them with that and asked the house elves to bake me a birthday cake. It was pretty awesome, I wish you had been here to see it all._

_Talking about you being here, I just want to confirm with you that everything is set for Saturday? Lottie said that she would love to go with us and I think it will be great for her to be there with you too, you know, so you don't feel too intimidated by meeting my family alone. Although she said she’s more excited about seeing Gemma and Niall again, so maybe there’s that. Oh, I probably didn’t mention it before that Niall will be there too, but yeah, he will. It’s going to be nice for you to see each other after so long and properly this time!_

_Can’t wait to have everyone together!_

_I know you said you’d be okay with it, but I think I could see how nervous you were before I left on Sunday. You don’t need to be apprehensive about this, Lou. But again, just to reassure you, they will love you because I love you, alright? And I’ll be here with you, I won’t let you feel overwhelmed or anything like that. It’s going to be fun, let’s focus on that, right?_

_But please, if you’re uncomfortable with doing it, let me know. I won’t be upset. We can do it anytime you want, okay? I’ll be waiting for your answer nonetheless, but hopefully, Lottie and I will be at your flat Saturday morning so we can apparate together at Mum’s later._

_Oh, and please tell me how it went with the painting project with the kids! I’m really curious about how that turned out :)_

_Looking forward to seeing you!_

_Love you,_

_H xx_

_PS: Maybe cuddle with Marcel a little so you can feel a bit better. He seems to have more empathy for you than for me anyways._

Louis shook his head again, this time laughing to himself because of Harry’s words. He certainly knew how to cheer Louis up, saying the right things, taking Louis’ feelings into consideration and making sure Louis was on board with what they were doing.

He knew he didn’t really need to be that nervous about meeting Harry’s family and as he read Harry’s letter, it helped him be a bit more relaxed about it. It would’ve been better if Harry was there himself to calm Louis down once again, but he guessed Marcel was a good enough company, just as Harry had suggested, to cuddle with him and make him feel better.

Marcel hooted above him, demanding Louis’ attention, which made Louis look up at him. “You gotta wait just a bit more as I answer H, okay? We still have some time ‘till playtime is over, you won’t leave without being spoiled some more. Don’t get bratty now, Marcel.” He said as he got a small notebook and a pen he had tucked inside his back pocket before leaving his class for the break. He had learned to bring them with him the first time Marcel had come visit, because how else would he reply to Harry’s letters without anyone barging into his business? It was easily becoming a routine for Louis and he liked that he had this time alone with Marcel to do just that.

He slid down onto the floor, sitting on the pavement and placed the notebook on his thighs as he started writing his reply to Harry, assuring him that everything was alright and that he would be anxiously (in a good way) waiting for him and Lottie to come over. He also told him how the painting project with his students had gone well, even though Marcus had managed to cover himself in red paint. His mother wasn’t very pleased to see her son’s state at the end of the school day, though.

The rest of the break was spent feeding Marcel more fruits after Louis asked him to come down to the ground to sit with him so he could pat the owl properly. It indeed helped Louis, making him just a tad sad to have to let him go when the bell rang loudly announcing Louis would have to go back to his work.

He was feeling less preoccupied now, still apprehensive of course but he knew he didn’t have much to worry. He would only have to keep his jitters in place for the rest of the week until Harry and Lottie showed up.

Surprisingly, he managed to do it, actually keeping himself busy, preparing his classes, correcting his student’s homework or distracting himself playing (and winning) FIFA against Liam, to stop his mind from constantly thinking about how things would go on Saturday. Even when Harry and Lottie finally arrived at his flat after Liam had already gone to Sophia’s, Louis didn’t feel as anxious as he thought he would be. But there was another factor that would always add up to his nervousness, and it was apparating.

“Please tell me Harry is the one actually doing the magic here,” Louis said as he closed the front door and stepped outside the flat to meet Harry and Lottie waiting for him.

“Hello to you too and now I’m reconsidering being a good sister and accompanying you.” Lottie rolled her eyes at him.

Harry chuckled beside her and Louis approached him to greet him with a brief kiss.

“Hi there, you ready?” He asked giddily.

“I’m ready if I don’t have to trust Lottie’s ability to teleport me across the country.” Louis distanced himself from Harry to poke his tongue out at his sister.

Lottie only puffed out at him, annoyed. “It’s not my fault you get easily ill every time you apparate.”

“Only with you, mind ya,” Louis added, matter-of-factly.

“He doesn’t feel that sick with me, that’s true,” Harry chimed in, playfully to tease Lottie too.

“You guys are the worst, ugh,” she tried to sound angry but she ended up laughing at them. “Do you or do you not want me to go with you?” She gave them a pointed look.

“We do, sis, we do. I’m just kidding,” Louis reached out to mess with her hair a bit. “Thanks for doing this, by the way,” he said directed to her, but then looked back at Harry standing beside him, with a small smile on his lips. Harry kissed Louis’ temple, bringing him closer again by the waist.

“Alright, let’s go then,” she clapped her hands and stepped in front of them. “And yeah, Harry is the one doing the _all the magic_ because I don’t think I’m fully prepared to practice side-along apparition with more than one person.”

“Better not take the risk, no,” Harry laughed as he extended his arm to her and Lottie hooked hers with his. “Please, hold on tight, both of you.”

Louis threw his arm around Harry’s middle as well, gripping firmly onto him. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes and a moment later the spinning sensation and nauseous feeling in his belly came in full force. That was one of the worst things Louis had the chance to experience in his life, because as soon as it came, it disappeared. One second his feet were planted on the floor at the entry hall of his flat, on the other he was afloat somewhere in the universe and then suddenly he was landing again, trying to steady himself, still holding onto Harry’s body.

“Everyone okay?” Harry’s voice came in tune as Louis’ ears were buzzing and he almost felt like puking, but as he inhaled deeply, his nerves got back into place.

“Yeah,” he answered a little weakly, opening his eyes again to look at Harry and Lottie.

“All good!” Lottie was cheerful in her reply and Louis knew it was only to prove to him how he was being a drama queen for feeling sick. “Wow, this is a nice place!” She remarked as she stepped away from them, looking around.

It took Louis a second to take in his surroundings, making a mental note that he wasn’t anywhere near London anymore.

They were standing on the pavement facing a small street filled with houses with large and open façades. Louis counted six houses from one end of the street to the other on both sides and he noticed how there wasn’t any cars on the street. There was an eerie silence surrounding them, nothing apart from some little coos Louis guessed were coming from the dry trees in front of the houses, which he quickly identified as coming from some owls, and also small meows and screeches from somewhere Louis’ couldn’t quite know. Everything was strangely quiet, no other pedestrians walking on the street, no car ever turning in that direction.

“Is this street… a wizard street?” Louis asked, hesitantly, letting go of Harry to turn around himself, trying to grasp the place.

Harry laughed. “Hm, yeah. It’s enchanted so muggles milling around town don’t come across it. Holmes Chapel is small village, so the few wizards that have settled here in the past decided to make their own private community based on this street. My great-grandfather was one of them,” he explained.

“Wow,” Louis gasped, understanding now the feeling he was getting from the place. “So, all these houses, they are from wizard families, like yours?”

“Yep, they are all basically family,” Harry answered smiling but a second later he frowned to himself. “Not directly from my family, you know, like, you won’t have to meet all of my neighbors, and–”

“Harry,” Louis stepped closer to him again, shaking his head, amused. Lottie was giggling beside them. “Babe, it’s okay, I wasn’t asking because of that. I’m just impressed, still, that places like this exist, you know, secluded among the real world or whatever.”

“Oh, okay.” Harry batted his eyelashes, looking just a bit embarrassed. “But yeah, it does exist. This is home, where I grew up,” he breathed deeply, smiling again at Louis. “That’s actually my home.” He pointed to the house across from the street.

It was an old-looking brick house that had a younger appearance than the others, as if it had been better taken care of throughout the years. Hovering about the roof, Louis could see two birds flying, one he quickly identified as Marcel and another he could deduce was Harry’s other family owl.

“It’s beautiful, H,” Lottie commented. “I see Morgana is here already, so you think Gemma has arrived?”

“Morgana?” Louis questioned, a bit confused.

“Yeah, Gemma’s owl,” Harry replied, pointing at the other owl flying next to Marcel, “and yeah, you bet she’s already there.” Louis noticed Harry taking a deeper breath than it was necessary. “We should get going then, shall we?”

Louis gulped, suddenly realising he was nervous once again. He was there now, in front of Harry’s wizard house, about to meet his family and there was no turning back. There wasn’t anything he could do but face his insecurities and make sure Harry knew he was ready for it, or as ready as he could be.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he answered, taking Harry’s hand in his and squeezing it tightly in reassurance.

The three of them then started walking towards the house, crossing the street and going through the small gate that linked the fences in front of the property.

From up close, it seemed like any other ordinary house Louis had come across in his life; it actually reminded him of his own, just wider and more spacious. Louis knew, though, that the moment he crossed that big front lawn and stepped inside, nothing would be quite the same.

Harry squeezed Louis’ hand once they got inside and Louis braced himself not to be overwhelmed by what he would encounter in the place. It was different to live with Lottie and have Harry coming over and to experience magic in small doses with a spell here and a charm there, but to enter in a place filled with magic, fueled by it even, that was another thing. And looking around himself as he kept walking in Harry’s tow, it was very hard to ignore how everything just seemed to have its own life.

They had only taken a few steps into the hallway and Louis already noticed all the photographs and pictures inside the house moving. He could identify Harry in some of them, along with a girl who looked very similar to him with different hair colours in different frames, but also another older woman who looked even more alike the girl, equally beautiful if he could say. In some others, it was only the woman with an older man, and Louis instantly connected it with them being Harry’s mum and stepdad since he spotted a picture of what could only be their wedding, both of them smiling brightly as some doves flew around them.

“Mum, we’re here!” Harry called out as they reached the end of the hall. When Louis stepped beside him, it was even more surprising to see what seemed to be the living room practically alive.

He spotted the three people he had seen through the pictures right in front of them, all of them with their wands out, levitating things – balloons and banners and strings, the furniture moving themselves out of the way, opening a bigger space in the center of the room where another person, one who also seemed vaguely familiar to Louis, was actually directing a table there at the same time the wand in his hand was holding a big cake in place, or better, in the air.

“Harry, dear! You arrived earlier!” Harry’s mum turned from where she was to face the three newcomers. “Happy Birthday, sweetie! Properly this time,” she closed the distance between her and Harry, firstly pocketing her wand and then embraced him, kissing him on the cheek twice.

Harry let go of Louis’ hand to return the hug. “Hey, mum. Thanks,” he distanced himself from the embrace to smile at her. “Yeah, we just quickly stopped by Louis’ and then we came directly from there.”

“Oh, right!” She tilted her head into Louis’ direction. “So, are you gonna do the honours?” She let go of Harry, stepping back and giving him a long look.

When just a moment before everything inside the room was in motion, now Louis watched everything standing still, everyone standing still, looking right back at them. Louis had never felt under the spotlight like that, not even when he had acted in plays during Uni with an actual audience watching him.

He saw who could only be Harry’s stepfather Robin, his sister Gemma and of course Niall paying close attention to them. Robin had a soft expression on his face, his round glasses giving him a sympathetic look. Gemma, on the other hand, had a more serious expression even with her purple-ish hair, her lips closed tightly as she didn’t take her gaze away from Louis, keeping her arms crossed over her chest. Niall, not as blond-ish as Louis previously remembered, had a neutral expression, but if Louis could tell, there was a small smile trying to make its way up his lips as he winked at Lottie.

“Mum, Robin, Gems… Ni, hello,” Harry spoke after he cleared his throat. “So, hm, for those who don’t already know them, these are Lottie and Louis.” He took a step aside closer to Louis, placing his hand on Louis’ lower back, slowly running circles there.

“It feels like we’ve already known you for ages! Welcome, Louis, so nice to finally meet you. I’m Anne.” Harry’s mother introduced herself, which obviously Louis knew wasn’t necessary, doing it mostly out of politeness.

“Same for me, it’s… well, I’ve heard about you through Harry plenty of times,” Louis didn’t know how he managed to speak so calmly and eloquently, “it’s a pleasure to meet you all in person after so long.”

“You bet,” he could hear Gemma’s quick comment behind her mother and for a moment he swore he saw Anne snapping her fingers and Gemma flinched, letting out a barely audible “ouch”.

“And you too, Lottie,” Anne looked at her with a sweet smile. “It almost feels like I’m finally meeting another daughter I didn’t know I had for how much Harry talks about you too.”

“Oh my,” Louis glanced at his sister to see her blushing, “Harry only does these things to embarrass me, I bet. But I’m so glad to meet you too, Mrs. Twist.”

“Call me Anne, please, darling,” she got closer to Lottie to soothe her arm up and down in a motherly way, “and, as Harry previously said, this is my husband Robin,” she turned to point at the older man, who waved back at them, “and well, the rest you already know each other very well, if I’m aware, except for you, Louis.”

Again, Louis felt like the center of attention when both Niall and Gemma cocked a brow at Anne. Niall let out a snort and Gemma was now not only looking at Louis, but from him to Harry.

“Oh, no, we’ve bumped into each other before at King’s Cross. A long time ago, yeah,” Niall spoke up. “It’s been a while, happy to see you again. How ya doin’, Louis?” The previous nonchalant stance he had was completely replaced by a very cheerful and receptive one as Niall walked closer to where Louis was standing and extended his hand that wasn’t holding his wand to Louis.

“Yeah, we did,” Louis gulped as he took Niall’s hand, remembering the two times they had seen each other – one where Niall had loudly smacked a kiss on Harry’s cheek before stealing him away to go home and another where Niall was standing next to Harry by the window of the Hogwarts Express and the train sped away from the platform. He also remembered very well how Niall was the cause of Lottie getting some detention back in the day at school. And, how Niall had been the one to go with Harry on the expedition trip that broke them up. “I’m good, good to see you too.” Louis smiled at him, happy that all those things were in the past now, and hopefully Niall didn’t hold any resentment about past feelings between them.

“Gemma?” Anne called her daughter as she noticed the girl hadn’t moved from her spot.

“I’ve talked to Lottie last week,” she simply replied, only then opening a smile that was clearly directed only to Lottie as she waved at her.

Louis felt a cold rush through his spine. As much as he had hoped it wouldn’t happen, as much as Anne and Robin seemed very welcoming to Louis being there and Niall didn’t seem to mind either, Gemma apparently had been the one who wasn’t receptive of Louis at all and he didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to react.

Harry, though, was fast and sharp in talking back to his sister, after pulling Louis a little closer to him. “Gemma, please, stop it.”

“Stop what?” She smiled smugly at him right before Louis saw her nose twitching a little and he quickly looked at Anne’s hand to see her snapping her fingers again. “Oh, right, yeah. Hello, Louis Tomlinson,” Gemma finally addressed Louis after sighing deeply, “now will you stop pinching my bum, mum?” She rolled her eyes at her mother and Louis had to contain himself from laughing at that.

The rest of the them, including Lottie and Harry, though, weren’t so successful. Especially Niall, who cackled out loud.

“I will if you stop being a brat, for Merlin’s sake.” Anne turned to look at Gemma again, her tone a little reprehensive.

“I’m not!” She retorted.

“You _are_ being a brat, c’mon Gems, you said you wouldn’t be like this.” Louis could feel Harry sighing tiredly beside him.

She looked back at Louis, raising an intimidating eyebrow at him. “I won’t once I’ve given him the big sister talk.”

“Gemma!” Anne cried out again, but not so sternly, almost in a funny and incredulously tone.

“Blimey, you can’t be serious now!” Harry let go of Louis to throw his arm in the air in exasperation.

Louis didn’t know what to do. It felt like he wasn’t even there, everything that was happening in front of him like an out of the body experience and all his concerns and worries from the past week were coming back to him. Even when Niall couldn’t stop laughing beside Gemma, Robin kept shaking his head at the exchange, Lottie simply covering her mouth with her hand, giggling behind it, and Anne seemed to be taking the discussion as something more lighthearted than it looked to him, Louis was not getting it.

Gemma kept looking at Louis with a serious expression for a moment until her face broke into a soft smile, making Louis even more confused.

“I’m obviously not serious, for Merlin’s sake, have you learned nothing from living with me for 22 years?” She shook her head, chuckling. “If anything, you should’ve known that I would try to embarrass you in front of your boyfriend. I’m sorry about that, Louis!” She took a few steps closer to them.

Louis was at a complete loss. What the fuck had just happened? He almost felt like his heart was going to jump out of his throat for how much he had actually believed that Gemma was being rude to him because she didn’t like him and now… that had all been for pretence, for her to make fun and take pity on Harry. Louis didn’t know if he should be mad at her or feel actually relieved and a little bit amused, if he could say it, by the little prank she had pulled onto them.

“Fuck you, Gems.” Harry led both his hands to his chest, in shock.

“Language in the house, please, Harry.” Anne reprehended.

“Got ya, didn’t I, baby brother?” Gemma stopped right in front of Harry, ruffling the top of his head, making his loose curls get all messy. “I’m really sorry about that, Louis. Don’t take anything personally, please,” she then turned to Louis, with her bright greenish eyes reminiscent of Harry’s, opening a big smile now, and a dimple appearing on her cheek just like her brother’s. “I’m really happy to finally meet you, don’t doubt that. Finally meeting the boy my brother kept talking about for years! To be honest, I thought it was really fruit of his imagination or that maybe he had conjured himself a fake muggle boyfriend and all,” she laughed and Harry cried out a very annoyed “Gemma!”

“I…” Louis’ mouth was gaping, not really sure what to say, “it’s… well, I panicked for a moment here, not gonna lie, ‘cause you gave me a big scare, but…” He let out a more relaxed sigh, looking at Harry’s flushed face, “I guess it was worth it to see Harry getting embarrassed,” he smirked, glancing from Harry to Gemma, to see Harry’s eyes widen and Gemma retribute his smirk.

“I can’t believe you’re siding with her!” Harry said, outraged, but with a joking tone. “I’m rethinking this whole thing, maybe I shouldn’t have brought you here after all!” He pouted childishly, but actually embracing Louis again by the waist.

“I knew there was something to like in you, Tomlinson. Lottie had already put a good word in your favour and now I’m seeing why my brother didn’t want to let you go.” She winked at him.

It was time for Louis to feel himself blushing under Gemma’s compliments and it was very hard not to get captivated by her friendly and witty way, aside from her beauty, which Louis was now pretty sure it ran in the family.

“Alright children, now that you’re done with your silly games, let’s get back to work. We still have some decorations to do to get this party going,” Anne spoke again, turning around to assess the room. “Niall, dear, I don’t know how you’re still doing it, but thank Merlin you didn’t let the cake fall this whole time.”

“Oh,” Niall seemed to finally turn his attention back to the task he had previously been doing after being too entertained by the banter. “Sorry, but the cake was less important than seeing Harry almost shit his pants.”

“Niall!” Harry grumbled, breathing a ‘ _you_ _prick_ ’ lowly so his mother couldn’t hear but that he made sure Niall did.

Louis chuckled, but his eyes were focused on the floating cake instead. He silently agreed with Anne, as he couldn’t possibly understand it either. He then saw Niall pushing the table towards the center of the room and finally place the cake on top of it.

“Is there anything you need help with, Anne?” Lottie asked as Anne also started getting back to work, as well as Robin.

Louis let the chatter between the two of them fade in the background and focused on Harry beside him and Gemma still looking at them, knowingly smiling.

“You are a fucking knobhead, seriously.” Harry shook his head as he addressed her.

“I’m your big sister, that’s what I am,” she poked her tongue out at him. “As a matter of fact, I wasn’t lying about the big sister talk, Louis. We’ll have some time for that, still,” she winked again at Louis before turning around and also resuming to her previous activity.

“If she does that, I’m gonna jinx her, just watch me,” Harry said as he placed a kiss on Louis’ cheek and smoothed his hand on Louis’ side. “I should’ve already jinxed her for what she did, I can’t believe it.”

“C’mon Haz,” Louis let out a laugh, “let her be. That’s what I would’ve done too,” he beamed at Harry, feeling more at ease now. “I haven’t gotten the opportunity to properly meet Tommy, but… I know my time is coming to embarrass Lottie too.”

“For Merlin’s sake, why are you older siblings like this?” Harry distanced himself from Louis, “I’m gonna talk to Lottie and ask her to create a ‘Little Siblings Protection Program’ with me, that’s what,” he chuckled as he took Louis’ hands in his. “In all seriousness now,” he looked tenderly at him, “sorry about that. But you see, you didn’t have to worry about them. I’m sure we’ll have a good time today.”

“Yeah, I’m alright now. Let’s just enjoy your party. Your parents are very invested in the decoration for us not to appreciate it,” Louis stepped closer to Harry again, kissing him on the cheek too, aware that someone had probably seen it, but he didn’t feel shy to do so. “Should we help them? I’m sure I’ll be useless, but I can give moral support.”

Harry laughed and without Louis expecting it, gave him a very quick peck on his lips. “I love you, you know that, right? Thank you, seriously, for trusting me in bringing you here.”

“I know,” Louis smiled, his stomach fluttering, but not for being nervous now. If anything, Gemma’s antics made him feel more at ease, showing him that he really didn’t need to worry about what Harry’s family thought of him. This time, though, the feeling was there for how happy he was that he was doing this with Harry.

And as the day went on, as he got to know more of Harry’s family and house, got to see Lottie interacting with other wizards, got to see Niall and Harry just being dorks together, had Niall properly talking to him and trying to get him to understand how Quidditch worked, and Gemma actually giving him a small “older sister talk” after they all had eaten the cake, got to play not only with Marcel but also with Morgana along with Lottie (finding out that Morgana was just as a nice owl as Marcel was, being a little skeptical at first but then enjoying Louis’ company – which he made sure to remark to Lottie, telling her that Ruth was the one who had problems with him) and seeing Harry’s family also feel more at ease with him, Louis didn’t feel as an outsider in Harry’s home, in Harry’s life. Louis was even more sure that what they were doing this time could be right, could properly work because they were making a real effort to be a hundred percent in each other’s lives.

They had a pleasant day together with Harry’s family, all of them welcoming Louis in their own way, but making sure Louis was comfortable and enjoyed himself. Even when it was time for Lottie to go back by herself to Hogwarts and Niall had to go back to his job at the Ministry of Magic, and it really hit Louis that he was there with his boyfriend’s family, alone now, Louis didn’t feel nervous. All his previous worries and concerns had gone away, Harry had made sure to include him in everything they did during the day and made sure that Louis wasn’t left out. And that was what counted, that was the most important for Louis.

The day dawned on Louis as he and Harry were getting ready for bed, in Harry’s actual childhood bedroom, an electric feeling still buzzing in his veins from the hectic time they had.

“Hey,” he approached Harry just as he had put on some of Harry’s old clothes to sleep and Harry was pulling the top of his pajamas over his head. Louis let his hand roam over Harry’s chest and leaned to kiss him on the lips gently.

“What was that for?” Harry asked, trying not to split his face into a wide grin, scrunching up his nose.

“Just… for today, for everything.” Louis shrugged, his hands going up and down Harry’s chest from under his shirt, then settled in hugging him around his waist.

He felt Harry still for a moment and take in a deep sigh. “I’m the one who has to thank you, Lou,” Harry spoke, kissing the top of Louis’ head as he put his arms around Louis too. “Thank you for being so patient and comprehensive and mostly a good sport today,” he laughed, leaning down to capture Louis’ lips on his again, “and just for accepting me, again, as I am.”

Louis closed his eyes nuzzling his nose against Harry’s jaw. “Thank you for taking a chance and not giving up on us this time.” Louis spoke by Harry’s ears, not sure how else to put into words how he felt. He was feeling too much again, and it almost felt right to say what he really wanted, but somehow it still didn’t leave his mouth.

He knew he loved Harry, and it was only growing on him again, cementing inside him, especially after the day they had. He loved Harry for who he was and for everything he was doing to make sure they worked together. It had been only a month since they decided to leave what had hurt them behind and give themselves a chance, and even though they had agreed that they wouldn’t start off from where they had stopped almost four years ago, Louis’ feelings were exactly how they were back then. They were somehow haunted by what they had gone through, otherwise Louis knew he would’ve already let Harry know, through words and not only gestures, how he really felt. But still, what he had with Harry right now didn’t feel like it had only happened within a month, it felt like it had grown for longer, seeing how it could flourish way further into the future, and right at that moment he didn’t want anything more than that.

“I won’t ever, Louis, as long as we’re in this together. I love you.” Harry placed his hand on Louis’ chin, making him look up at him and kissing him thoroughly.

Every time they had a moment like this, every time Harry said those three words when they were alone, Harry didn’t leave any window for Louis to wonder whether he should say it back. That was because Harry knew somehow that Louis’ way of saying them now was showing it to him the best way he could and Louis was so glad for Harry for understanding it and not pressuring him into anything.

Louis could only savour those opportunities and make Harry feel the way he hoped he would once he voiced his feelings. As they kept kissing deeply, tenderly, standing inside Harry’s old bedroom, Louis saw that as another chance to make the best of what they had right now. So he slowly pushed Harry to his old childhood bed, matching Harry’s movements and whimpers as they stumbled onto the sheets and lost themselves into each other again.


	3. March 2016

“Tell me again why I have to be the one doing this.” Harry spoke from the chair he had been sat in Louis’ kitchen, looking to his side as he watched Lottie prepare the ingredients she was placing inside her cauldron in the middle of the table.

“Because you’re kind enough, because you were the one who gave me this cauldron so I could actually try my beauty products and because you’re the only one with curly enough hair for me to do it,” Lottie replied, adding a liquid from a small vial into the cauldron, only a drop of it, but which made a pink cloud come from it.

Louis observed them both as he was sat on another chair, on the other side of the kitchen.

It was the Easter break on the last weekend of March and Lottie and Harry had come back to London so they could have Easter lunch with Louis’ family on Sunday. They had arrived a few days before and Lottie was eager enough to try one of the potions she had been brewing herself, hoping that it would be perfected before they had to go back to Hogwarts and experimented it with her friends, and maybe that she could test it on Harry on Saturday before they became too busy the next day.

Harry, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be too eager to be Lottie’s guinea pig, but she had been pestering him the whole week and Harry wasn’t really one to say no to anyone anyway, especially not to Lottie. And so because of his goodwill, he was now perched on the kitchen chair, wearing a very old white t-shirt while his hair was completely loose around his shoulders.

“You could’ve tried it with anyone else at Hogwarts.” Harry sighed, darting a kind of desperate look at Louis, his eyes screaming for help.

“I could’ve, yeah, but if it failed and I happened to screw someone’s hair, nobody would trust me with anything anymore and my yet nonexistent business would go down the drain even before it started.” Lottie shrugged, stirring a big spoon inside the cauldron.

“And why do I have to jeopardize my hair if something goes wrong?” Harry whined and Louis shook his head, chuckling a bit. “You could’ve used Louis for that too.”

“Oi!” Louis protested. “As she said, you have the perfect curly hair for that or whatever. As you can see,” he ruffled his own hair, messing with his fringe over his forehead, “I don’t have the same curls as you, love, and she’s already messed with me own hair enough for a lifetime in the past, so,” Louis laughed, “you gotta do it, for the future of your almost alumna, you know.”

Harry rolled his eyes and let his body sank back against the chair, defeated. “Right.”

“Harry, you know how much I’ve been practicing this potion, I don’t think there’s much that can go wrong. I mean, it’s a simple thing just to make your hair instantly straight.” She smiled at him, as she fumbled with her supplies on the table, taking two rubber gloves and putting them on.

“Well, I hope so,” Harry ran a hand over his long locks, “because I like my hair as it is now. I don’t even like my hair straight, that’s mostly why I’m being a brat about it, I’m sorry. So, would you mind, like, not putting the potion all over it? If it’s just to check if it’s working, maybe you could do only the tips?”

Louis could see how nervous Harry was about doing it, and it was actually hilarious. He was almost patting his own hair, rolling the loose curls on the tip around his finger.

“Yeah, I think it’s best, and then if it works, I can see just how much I need for a full hair length, is that ok?” Lottie got a spoonful of the potion from inside the cauldron and put it in a bowl she got from Louis’ cabinet.

“Fine.” Harry sighed again, not really having any other option.

“You’re gonna look good, babe, don’t worry.” Louis opened an encouraging smile at him as he saw Lottie taking a step behind Harry’s chair.

Seeing Harry and Lottie doing things together always warmed Louis’ heart up, because it was moments like this one, where he got his favourite people with him, that made him aware that he had made the right decision. Harry and him had been doing great for almost three months now, managing a long-distance relationship again and getting the best out of the times they had when they spent the weekends, or their day offs like these together.

Louis was certain he wouldn’t get tired soon, if ever, of it, of Harry, especially when Harry smiled back at him, mouthing him a private thanks, knowing that Louis would support him in whatever he did, even if it was to get his hair straightened by some crazy potion his little sister had come up with.

Harry closed his eyes as soon as Lottie started playing with his hair, combing it with her fingers before she started applying the potion.

Louis positioned himself on the edge of his chair, elbows prompted on his thighs as he watched Lottie carefully work on Harry’s hair, curious to see what would come out of it. It was something quick, because she indeed had just spread some of the potion on the very tip of Harry’s curls. The way she was frowning, though, concentrated on her task, showed Louis that she wasn’t completely satisfied with what had happened, or better, what hadn’t happened yet.

“Hm, I don’t think it’s working with just this, H. I might have to put some more. Can I apply like, four fingers up your hair?” She chewed on her lips, tilting her head to the side.

Harry opened his eyes and turned his head to look back at her. “Do I really have a say in this?”

“Well…” She considered what to answer for a second and Louis already knew what she would say. “Not really. So yeah, I’m gonna do it.”

Louis chortled from where he was sat, entertaining himself with what was going on.

Lottie then started putting on some more potion into Harry’s hair with a long hair paint brush. It took a tad longer this time but Lottie still didn’t seem to be happy with her result.

“I don’t understand, it’s not doing anything,” she sounded a bit irritated, “maybe this should only work with the whole length of the hair?”

“No, you’re not doing the whole hair, Lottie!” Harry promptly rejected the idea. “Are you applying the potion the right way? Maybe, like... okay, you can do half of my hair, alright? And why not try to comb or brush the potion through it? It should get more of the hair and then it would work faster…” Harry was shaking his legs, nervously playing with the rings on his fingers, really showing discomfort with what he had just suggested.

“Someone seems eager to just get this over with,” Louis remarked sarcastically.

“That’s because it’s not your hair that’s gonna suffer through this!” Harry rolled his eyes jokingly at Louis before poking his tongue out at him.

“Hm, yeah, I guess it should help if I did just that,” Lottie moved to get a big comb from the table before she applied even more potion on Harry’s hair, getting the half bottom of it wet from the weird looking liquid, Harry’s locks turning to a very dark colour up to where his neck met his jaw.

The moment Lottie let the comb go through Harry’s hair, going all the way down its length, she let out a tiny squeak.

“What was that?!” Harry was alert, his eyes opening widely, ready to lead his hand to his own hair, but Lottie batted it away.

“Are you crazy? I’m wearing gloves to apply this thing, Merlin only knows what it would do to your skin if you got in contact with it!”

“What? What would it do to my skin? It’s basically in contact with it, with my hair, Lottie! What happened?” Harry sounded completely desperate. He wasn’t looking back at Lottie, instead he had his eyes fixed on Louis, who only kept looking from Lottie’s horrified expression to Harry’s alarmed one. He mouthed a “I don’t know” back to Harry because he knew Harry had directed the last question to him instead of to Lottie.

“Nothing,” she replied, fake cheerful. “I’m gonna keep just combing your hair and,” she was being very careful as she passed the comb through Harry’s hair once again, but then she stopped right away. “Oh God!” she let out in a panicked tone. Louis knew something had gone terribly bad because, instead of Merlin she had said God. Only when she was truly desperate would she talk like muggles again, according to herself.

Louis straightened his posture on his chair, trying to get a better look at what was happening with Lottie, when he saw her shaking the comb towards the floor and some strands of hair– _Harry’s hair_ falling from it.

“Lottie!” Harry started to get restless on his chair, moving his head from one side to the other, probably trying to see for himself what was going on with his hair.

“Oh God,” she continued as she combed Harry’s hair again and Louis saw more of it falling onto the floor. He quickly got up and walked the distance between his and Harry’s chair, to finally inspect what had happened, to be sure that, yeah, Harry’s hair was actually falling from Lottie’s potion.

“Lou, what did she do? Tell me, for Merlin’s sake.” Harry looked at him with pleading eyes as Louis stepped beside him.

“I’m so sorry, Harry.” Lottie instantly stopped combing his hair – or what was left of it – and dropped the comb and gloves back on the table, leading both of her naked hands to cover her mouth in shock.

Harry looked from the comb on the table to Louis, who was simply staring at them in shock, his mouth completely shut in a thin line.

“What the fuck happened?” He didn’t even mind what Lottie had said some moments before as he got both his hand in his hair, in a movement Louis was so used to Harry doing when he was about to tie it or put it into a bun, but the moment his hands touched the hair, it all came off completely. The part that hadn’t fallen out with the way Lottie had combed it, basically the whole bottom half of Harry’s hair had come off and now there was only a dumbstruck Harry looking at it.

Lottie gasped behind her hands. “I’m sorry, Harry, I really am!” She repeated her apology again, as she stared back at Harry, “Oh my God, I’m truly sorry!”

Louis couldn’t contain himself anymore, though. He led one hand to cover his mouth too, but not from shock, no. “Oh fuck!” He managed to say, even though he was bending himself, his arm holding himself by his middle, laughing out loud.

Harry didn’t even say anything or paid him any mind. He kept looking at his hair in his hand as he got up, looking down to the floor to see the rest of it that had fallen before. He took several deep breaths, assessing the situation.

“Harry, please say something,” Lottie finally took her hands away from covering her mouth, now nervously biting on her thumbnail. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t think something this bad was going to happen.”

“It’s…  Bloody hell, I don’t… Lottie, fucking Merlin,” he was babbling nervously, not really angry, but Louis could sense Harry was at a complete loss on what to say.

It shouldn’t be funny, Louis knew that, but to look at Harry like that, his hair as if Harry had gotten a bob cut, it was inevitable for him to just keep on laughing because of Harry’s face and reaction.

“I can fix it, I can try to fix, Harry!” Lottie started looking around the table when she finally got her wand in hand, pointing to where Harry’s hair should’ve been on his head.

Harry was probably too perplexed to even protest against Lottie doing anything again with his hair.

Louis couldn't make out the words Lottie was saying but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Harry’s hair, if her intention had been to make it grow back.

It only made the frustration in the room grow more intensively. Harry was looking in disbelief at the hair in his hand as he dropped it to the floor along with the rest of his locks, Lottie was hesitant to do anything again and Louis was trying to stop laughing.

“How about you try that _Infinity Incantation_ thing? Isn’t it supposed to undo whatever happened?” He managed to pull himself together after a moment and tried to be useful to his boyfriend and sister, even though he had no real idea on how to help them.

“It’s _Finite Incantatem_ , and no, it won’t work,” Harry shook his head, the loss of his long locks more apparent as he did the movement. “I… It’s… fuck,”  Harry led his hands to his hair, running his fingers through it until there wasn’t any loose strands anymore, whining when the realization hit him that his long, luscious hair had been cut off abruptly.

“Calm down, babe, it’s not the end of the world.” Louis tried stepping closer to him, his hand resting over his shoulder.

“It’s the end of my hair!” Harry cried out, and Louis was almost sure he was actually crying. “I can’t believe you did this to me, Lottie! I trusted you!” He complained, but his voice didn’t seem that outraged at her. He was mainly frustrated, Louis knew it.

Lottie ran both her hands over her face in agony. “I didn’t know! I thought it was going to work! I am really sorry, Harry, really really!”

“Babe, are you crying?” Louis asked tentatively when he saw Harry pinching the bridge of his nose. He tried not to laugh again, rubbing his hand over Harry’s shoulder blade, missing the contact with Harry’s hair there. Harry inhaled deeply and looked back at him, and Louis could see his eyes a bit glistened and really, it was just too much for him to contain himself, again, so he let out a short snort.

“For Fuck’s sake, no, I’m…” Harry sniffed a little, trying to sound more composed, “it’s in a cool way though,” he shook his head, breathing in and out, trying to calm himself. “It’s cool, I’m cool. It’s… It can’t be this bad. We can do something, it’s…” he started pacing around the kitchen, looking for something Louis didn’t understand what it was at first, but when Harry was basically trying to look at any shiny surface to catch his reflection, Louis took pity on him. “My hair is gone, fucking hell,” he laughed humorlessly as he took the lid of one of Louis’ pans that had been drying on top of the sink counter to inspect himself.

“Isn’t it better if you just go to the bathroom and look in the mirror?” Louis calmly suggested as Harry quickly looked back at him.

“Yeah,” he replied shortly, looking out of himself as he took long strides outside the kitchen and made his way to Louis’ bathroom.

“He’s gonna curse me the moment he really looks at himself. It was nice meeting you, Lou,” Lottie said sadly and Louis snorted one more time, following behind Harry with Lottie on his tow.

Louis found Harry staring blankly at the mirror, both his hands trying to grope at the tips of his now short hair, getting the reminiscent feeling of the hair that was once there.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” Louis started, trying not to laugh again and actually make Harry feel better somehow.

Harry just gave him a side-eyed glance and shook his head. “It’s awful, Louis. You know how long it took me to grow it like that?!”

“It will grow back, you know that, right?” Louis scoffed.

“But not right now!” Harry sighed, lowering his head and leading his hands to hold the sink on its sides tightly.

“Oh, c’mon, seriously. It’s not bad, you just have to… maybe cut it a little more, trim it properly?” Louis tried, his fingers tentatively brushing against Harry’s newly short locks. “If you want to, I mean, you could totally sport this bob cut, but…”

Harry looked back up at Louis, his expression a little more serene than the spaced out one he had for the past ten minutes since the accident.

“I guess I’ll have to do it, then.” He got to a straight position, looking at the mirror again. He took his wand that was placed on the sink in hand, breathing deeply.

“You’re gonna do it?” Louis asked a little bit confused. “You’re gonna cut your own hair?”

Harry only nodded, biting his lips.

“Don’t you want help?” He questioned, hesitantly.

“I think I’ve had enough of people messing with my hair today, thank you very much.” Harry replied and Louis knew he didn’t intend to sound harsh. “But if you could find me a pair of scissors, it’d be very helpful.”

“Okay,” that was all Louis said, not wanting to upset Harry with any other funny comments he could make about the situation.

Louis quickly went through the cabinet in the bathroom to find the scissors, handing them to Harry, who promptly took it. He lingered for a moment at the door, and when Harry didn’t look back at him, Louis realized he wanted to do it alone, so he left, closing the door behind him.

“He’s gonna cut his own hair, isn’t he?” Lottie asked from where she had stood in the hallway.

“Yes, and I hope it doesn’t become an even bigger tragedy than what you managed to do to him.” Louis chuckled as he got closer to her, ruffling her hair before throwing his arm around her shoulder and making her walk with him back to the living room.

“That was not my intention, Lou, c’mon! I just wanted to test the potion,” she pouted as they sat down on the couch. “I really didn’t think something like this would happen, I don’t… I’m feeling awful.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Lots,” Louis kissed her temple, “shit happens, even with magic, apparently. Harry will come around, I’m sure he won’t get mad at you for real. If he manages to fix what you did, he will feel better. We’ll see when he comes back.”

Lottie nodded and sighed tiredly beside him, starting to chew on the pad of her thumb.

“You know, every time you decided to change my hair colour when we were younger and even though I didn’t know it was really you, I’d get mad at you, but eventually I’d just forget it,” Louis said, trying to calm her down.

She giggled faintly. “I didn’t decide to do it. It would happen out of nowhere, especially when you’d hide one of my dolls.”

“So, as I suspected, you really do like to mess with people’s hair intentionally as some kind of punishment? I’ll have to ask Haz if he accidentally gave you a bad grade or somewhat,” Louis joked, trying to make her feel better. And he knew she was when she slapped him over his chest, putting some distance between them.

“I hate you,” she poked her tongue out at him and Louis made a silly face back at her.

There wasn’t much Louis could keep saying to actually make Lottie few much better than that. Now, they would only have to wait until Harry came out of the bathroom, with a new (and hopefully better) hair cut.

It took a good few minutes for Louis to hear the bathroom door opening, turning his head to look at Harry coming from the hallway to the living room. He saw from the corner of his eyes Lottie apprehensively looking in that direction too and he couldn’t lie about how he didn’t know what to expect when Harry stepped into his view.

He almost gasped at the sight. It had been a shock before to see Harry’s hair falling and then hilarious to see him with a weird uneven and untrimmed hairstyle. Now, though, as Harry walked closer to them, Louis was able to really take in Harry with his hair with less volume, but not so short, trimmed the right amount at the end of his neck and on the sides where Louis could easily still run his hands through it but not long enough to grip at his locks, he reckoned, leaving Harry's ears on display…  and that was a view Louis hadn’t pictured.

Harry’s hair was shorter than his own, and even shorter than Louis had ever remembered it being, even from when they had first met 7 years before. He didn’t go back to that same style, his curls were completely gone now and he didn’t let a fringe cover his forehead. He wasn’t looking like his teenage self, no. He was looking older and, if that was possible, even more beautiful than he already was.

“Wow,” Louis managed to say as he got to a stand and walked closer to him.

“So…” Harry started, running his own fingers through his hair, Louis noting that it was a bit wet, probably because Harry thought better to wash away any remaining potion and to make it more presentable. “Much better, right?” He asked, his bottom lip caught between his teeth, a bit unsure, looking at Louis as he let his hand run through the back of his head, scratching his now free and exposed neck.

“Fuck yeah,” Louis smiled at him. “Fuck, Haz, it’s…” Louis led his own hand to feel Harry’s hair, “you look so good, babe.”

“Now I’m not really feeling that bad for letting that happen to your hair, H. You’re looking good with a shorter cut,” Lottie said in awe, looking at Harry from where she was sitting.

Harry rolled his eyes at her and smiled coyly at Louis. “You’re not saying it just because, right? It doesn’t look weird, does it? Merlin, I wasn’t even sure how to cut it, what to do with it at first, I almost thought of just leaving it as it was befo–”

“No, Haz, stop it!” Louis interrupted him, seeing how self conscious Harry was being, “it’s not weird. You look perfect and I love it, okay? Anything you’d decide to do with your hair, I’d love it because I love you. Any hairstyle, even if you had kept the bob cut.” Louis smoothly massaged Harry’s scalp in a caress before he closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head at the thought of actually seeing Harry walking around with a bob cut.

For a second, Harry didn’t speak and Louis opened his eyes to look at him again, seeing him opening a bigger smile, one that showed off both his dimples and made the crinkles by his eyes more prominent, actually seeing Harry’s eyes shining.

“I love you too,” Harry replied, his smile not faltering, looking directly at Louis.

Louis started smiling back at Harry, the feeling inside himself from hearing Harry say that to him one he had already gotten used to, one that only grew more each day that passed, and was growing even more with him realizing that it didn’t matter how Harry looked like, he would love him back the same way.

It took Louis a second to catch up what he had just said and thought with what Harry had replied to him.

Harry loved him. That he had already heard him saying so many times for the past three months they had been together, but now… Harry loved him _too._ He loved him too because Louis loved Harry and had said that out loud. Louis had actually said it without even noticing. Oh, fuck.

Louis felt his face freeze at the realization, his smile stopping midway and his eyes widening just a little. But with the way Harry kept looking at him, with the way he had replied to Louis, so nonchalantly even though he had realized it had been the first time Louis had said it aloud, that didn’t make Louis freak out, not on the outside at least.

He resumed smiling again, lowering his eyes, feeling too exposed at Harry’s intense but sweet stare.

“I…” He tried to say something else just to mask the feeling of getting caught and of being a little exposed, but nothing came out. He slowly took his hand away from Harry’s hair and fidgeted with the hem of his jumper sleeve.

“Oooooh,” Lottie cooed beside them, making them both look at her and Louis knew she had understood what had just happened.

“I’m gonna,” she smiled knowingly at them, getting up from the couch and pointing her finger around the room at nowhere in particular, “leave you two alone for a moment.” She kept smiling as she passed by them and winked at Louis before she disappeared into the hallway, probably heading to Louis’ bedroom, or back to the kitchen, he didn’t pay much attention, because as soon as she disappeared, Harry placed his hand on Louis’ face, making him look up at him again.

“Do you?” He asked, tenderly, his eyes still gleaming.

Louis breathed deeply, licking his lips before gathering some courage to speak. “What? If I like your hair the way it is right now? Of course I do, Harold, I wasn’t ly–” He opted to joke and tease Harry about it than to let Harry corner him, but Harry was smart and knew what Louis was doing, of course, and didn’t let him finish, getting closer to Louis to capture his lips in his quickly.

The kiss made Louis’ insides settle, not sure why he was actually nervous about having said it to Harry. It made sense that he had been more nervous before when he had been running it over his head why he couldn’t just say it back. Now that he did, there wasn’t any reason for him to be like that.

“I love you, yeah,” he repeated after drawing back from Harry, looking at him with no hidden intentions or any smart comment at the tip of his tongue. “Did you think I didn’t?” He asked though, genuinely, not sure if Harry had asked him that because he just wanted to hear Louis repeating it or if he had doubted for any moment what Louis felt for him (which was probably why Louis was starting to get nervous again, knowing that in the back of his mind he always wondered if how he showed Harry how he felt was enough to reassure him of what they had).

“No, I didn’t, I didn’t doubt you, Lou,” Harry was quick to reply, shaking his head and bringing his hand down to Louis’ neck, rubbing his thumb over Louis’ skin, “I know how you feel, you’ve showed me so many times and in the best possible ways. I was just… you know, wondering when I’d get to hear it back,” he gave an unapologetical small shrug.

Louis understood where Harry was coming from and he couldn’t blame him for having insecurities about Louis voicing his feelings when Louis had been the one feeling that way.

“I wanted to, for so long, Haz,” he gave him a lopsided smile, “every time you told me, it was always on the tip of my tongue to say it, because I’ve always known the feeling was mutual, but I don’t know, I kept thinking about when the right time to say it would be, when I’d actually feel comfortable saying it not only because you had already done it and…” he let out a heavy sigh, “I guess I was waiting for a moment like this where it simply came out without me thinking that I should say it. Because I didn’t think now, I just said it because it’s the truth. I love you, with long or short hair, curly or straight, maybe even bald,” he chuckled, passing his hand through Harry’s hair again, then sliding his fingers to caress the shell of his ears.

“Even bald?” Harry laughed in return, lowering his hand to Louis’ arm, linking their hands together and bringing Louis to sit down with him on the couch. “I don’t think it’s worth trying this theory, though.”

Louis locked his lips with Harry’s again, lingering for a bit longer. “If you say so, but I’m sure I would because I love everything in you,” he didn’t feel embarrassed to admit it, actually feeling more free to say it, “I loved you before and I love you now, even more now. And it’s not gonna be you going bald or with your quirky little ears out that’s gonna make me love you any less,” he spoke as he distanced himself, leading his hands to hold Harry by either side of his face, both his thumbs and index fingers playing with Harry’s ear.

“Heeey, they are not quirky!” Harry refuted, trying to sound offended but actually laughing.

“Yes they are,” Louis scrunched up his nose, “look at how tiny they are and now I get to see them all the time,” he squeezed Harry’s ears in between his fingers, earning a squeal from Harry, kissing him on one cheek and then on the other before going back to his lips. “I love them and I love you.”

Harry rolled his eyes fondly at Louis. “Now you’re overusing it only to make fun of me,” he pouted. “My ears are perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

Louis quirked a brow at him. “Oh, so you want me to take it back? Feeling sore only because you have baby ears?” He joked again.

“No! No!” Harry giggled as he held Louis by his waist with both his hands, bringing him closer to kiss him again. “I’m happy about it, I love you for saying it. Not about the ears, though.” Harry nuzzled their noses together and Louis could feel Harry laughing in his breath.

“Me too, yeah. I love you too,” Louis replied, feeling a weight lift off his chest to finally say it back and he was sure he wouldn’t regret it.

And he didn’t when he repeated it later at night once they were alone in his bedroom and Harry got his lips wrapped around him, making Louis feel so good it was difficult not to let it spill, now that he felt free to say it whenever he wanted to.

It didn’t feel different, though. They were taking each other the same way as they had been doing and that was probably just because the feeling had already been there with them. Louis knew it would be only a matter of time until he said it and he was more than overjoyed that now that he had done it, it only made them able to enjoy themselves even more from then on, not having anything holding him back.

He wished, though, he had something to hold on to Harry as he kept sinking his mouth deeper on him. The loss of Harry’s hair as he was used to tangle his fingers in them to encourage Harry to keep going, sometimes tugging a bit rougher at his locks just like he knew Harry liked, was something he would miss but he was sure he soon would get used to it, finding other ways to incite Harry and himself. Being able to whisper “I love you’s” to each other was already making it up for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're sure people know exactly how Harry looked with his hair cut, but here's [Harry right after his hair fell because of Lottie's potion](https://78.media.tumblr.com/992901da03f8fd3bb2880cad0d236809/tumblr_p1zxc6jvcB1ryrxi1o6_400.gif) ;D  
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! xx


	4. June 2016

Louis felt a little bit out of place to be standing on the platform all by himself. He didn’t even remember when the last time he had actually been inside Platform 9 ¾ was. In the past years, when magic was still haunting his life but he had to bring Lottie to take the train or pick her up to go home for the Holidays, he would only walk up ‘til platforms 9 and 10 with her or to wait for her.

Now though, he had gotten inside to wait for Lottie and Harry, trying to leave all his previous worries behind and calm himself as he kept looking at the railway, surrounded by other people, mostly wizards, also waiting for the Express to arrive. It was the last time Lottie would be coming back from Hogwarts, since she had just finished school and Harry was coming back with her, ready to start his break from his first year of teaching with some well deserved celebration for Lottie’s achievement.

They had planned to head to Diagon Alley after arriving back at London and Louis didn’t have much say in deciding where to go since he was the odd one out among them and obviously because it hadn’t been him who had just graduated from a Wizarding School. It didn’t mean he was completely on board with that, because even if he was okay with having a witch as a sister and a wizard as a boyfriend, being surrounded by magic, especially in places exclusively for wizards still made Louis anxious somehow.

He knew it probably wasn’t like that, but he felt like people were paying attention to him, knowing that he wasn’t like them, that he was a _muggle_ and judging him for it, and he hated that feeling. Fortunately, he didn’t have much time to feel completely overwhelmed by it because soon enough there was an arm being thrown around his shoulders and a very loud Irish voice calling his attention.

“Hey, Louis! How have ya been, mate?” Louis turned around to meet Niall beaming at him. He let out a relieved sigh to see a familiar face.

Since meeting with Niall at Harry’s birthday back in February, Harry made sure whenever Niall had some free time on the weekends when he’d visit Louis, that they would catch up with him. Louis easily got used to Niall’s presence and his easy-going personality. He got to know more about him (although he still didn’t know what Niall worked for at the Ministry of Magic with him being busy all the time, only having a couple of hours to spend with them) and his and Harry’s friendship, not getting jealous of him as he would be in the past when he didn’t know him very well (he was young and had a crush on his current boyfriend, sue him for thinking whatever he thought back in the day). He also didn’t let any of the past sentiments he had held against Niall taunt this newly made friendship with him. Occasionally he would remind Niall of all the times he had taught Lottie some unnecessary jinx to attack other people at school, but all of that was only for banter. Niall and Harry recounting what they had done during their expedition in South America wasn’t something that brought bad memories to Louis either; he’d always listen to them and actually looked eager to know more about what they had learned there.

It didn’t take long for Niall and Louis to hit it off and sometimes it would make Harry the one to be jealous of how Niall would always laugh at something Louis would say or would keep asking, through Harry, how Louis was doing. He was glad Niall had accepted him back in Harry’s life, knowing that Niall had encouraged Harry to try things with Louis again, trusting him and Louis to do what was best for them, because he only wanted what was best for Harry and so far he knew Louis was it for him. It was exhilarating for him to know he was connecting with other parts of Harry’s life, with people who were important to Harry and cared about him, and that he now considered important as well.

“I’m good, Nialler, and ya?” Louis replied, smiling at Niall in return, seeing his blue eyes shining with giddiness behind his round glasses at Louis’ greeting.

“Everything’s fine! A little bit tired and in a hurry as always, but I managed to find some time to meet with y’all. Couldn’t miss celebrating Lottie and the others finishing School, right?” He patted on Louis’ shoulder, distancing himself.

“Glad you could make it! Lots’ gonna be happy to see you here, maybe thank you for being the one to teach her some of the those jinxes back in the day,” Louis joked.

“Oh, c’mon, man!” Niall laughed, “those she would’ve learned with or without my help. Hogwarts is not only a school of witchcraft, it’s a school of life,” he shook his head slightly, “but ya know, if there’s somebody who she has a lot to thank for actually teaching her, that is your boyfriend.” Niall let out a fond smile.

“Well, obviously. He’s her teacher,” Louis rolled his eyes sarcastically. “She’d better be thankful, otherwise I’ll just think Harry’s not a good professor and only gave her good grades because she’s his favourite student,” he scoffed.

“He tries to be unbiased, man, he does, but sometimes he can’t just hide how proud he is of her. I am too, I mean, I saw her learning all this magic from scratch, it was so nice to see her grow into the smart witch she is now.” Louis could actually see the pride in Niall’s eyes as he spoke of his sister and he could understand it, yeah, because he had the same sentiment. “But, I think having Harry, not only as her actual teacher, but almost as her mentor since the beginning has helped her. Hazza taught her how to conjure a freaking Patronus at 12, like… that’s some high level shit, ya know?” Niall moved his hands around, making a mind-blown gesture, chuckling afterwards and fixing his glasses.

“I didn’t even know what that was and I was really impressed back then, so yeah, I know,” Louis smiled again, nostalgically, remembering the time Harry had sent him the picture of Lottie with her patronus and explaining how and why she had been able to do that. “I’m glad they had each other.”

“Of course you are, otherwise you wouldn’t be here today with Harry, you sap.” Niall teased, elbowing him right at the same time they heard the Express approaching the station, luckily interrupting Louis from replying to Niall’s banter, only laughing in return, trying to keep himself from blushing. “Oh, there they come!” Niall quipped, looking at the railway, “I’m fucking hungry, I hope we head straight to the Leaky Cauldron.”

Louis nodded as the Express slowly made its way into the platform until it reached a complete stop, the engine humming loudly and the smoke filling the place. The doors opened and a flood of students started stepping down the train, most of them out of the school’s uniform, but Louis could see some younger one’s sporting those long black robes.

As student after student filled up the platform looking for their relatives, Louis started looking around to see if he spotted Lottie or Harry. Niall was beside him doing the same and suddenly pulled Louis by the hem of his shirt to get his attention, pointing somewhere further down the platform where he could see Lottie and her unmistakably long platinum hair, talking with some other students.

“Harry must be in some of the first compartments, let’s go talk to Lottie and wait until he shows up,” Niall said as he walked through the crowd of students and parents, leading the way to Lottie as Louis followed him behind.

When they approached her, she was hugging her friends goodbye and Louis noticed Danny besides her.

“Hello former Hogwarts students!” Niall greeted as he stepped closer to them first.

“Ni!” Lottie exclaimed excitedly, quickly enveloping in a hug.

“I’m always the one who’s ignored. Unbelievable!” Louis joked, which made Lottie send him an annoyed but fond look while still hugging Niall.  

“Hi, Louis!” Danny chuckled beside them and Louis smiled at her.

“Hey there, Danny,” he ran his eyes around them, not seeing her brother around. “Isn’t Tommy coming with us?”

“Oh, he is, but he’ll meet us at the Cauldron,” she answered with a coy smile.

“Right.” Louis smirked a little.

Right. That would be the first time Louis would go out with Lottie and Tommy since they first started dating. It seemed the boy wasn’t up for having a confrontation with the older brother so soon. Louis was hoping he would meet him right at the platform, but that would have to wait until later then. He couldn’t wait to finally embarrass Lottie in front of him.

“Louis, will you stop it?” Lottie let go of Niall, coming closer to Louis.

“I’m not doing anything!” He raised his arms in an apologetic gesture. “I just wanted to know if your date was joining us. I figured he’s still gathering his courage to finally meet the older brother as your official boyfriend.” Louis kept smiling smugly at her, not missing the opportunity.

“Ugh!” She whined, but pulled him for a hug. “Please, don’t do anything to scare or embarrass him. You already know him, there’s no need to be a twat.” She stepped away from him and Louis could see her big blue eyes actually pleading for Louis to be normal just for once.

“I won’t, I’m just messing with ya.” He ruffled the top of her head, winking at her. Well, he would try the bare minimum not to do anything, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Talking about embarrassing,” Niall called their attention after greeting Danny, “there comes Mr. Harry _‘I only wear hats now’_ Styles.” Niall snorted as he pointed out to the crowd again, making Louis look in the direction to see Harry coming towards them.

Before, it would’ve been easy to spot Harry because of his indistinguishable long hair. Now, since he had cut it, he opted for a new fashion accessory: a cap.

Louis noticed that, at first, it had been because he was still insecure and self-conscious of how his hair looked cut that short. Easter morning before they had headed to Louis’ house in Doncaster, the day after the “incident” – as they called – Harry had fumbled inside his bags to see if he had any hat with him, without any luck, though. He was forced to conjure one for himself after he begged Louis to search different types of hats on the internet so he could choose one to copy. Why Harry ended up picking [ a black greek fisherman hat ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/0e8ff13f58c83a98d32788f4a03d44e9/tumblr_o6yyu6hX4N1qg6jh9o1_1280.jpg) he wouldn’t understand, but he couldn’t deny that he actually looked good with it. And if Harry was worried that his new appearance would be the center of attention and people would make bad comments of how he looked, he was actually surprised to see that the rest of Louis’ siblings were actually delighted with Harry’s hat and the baby twins didn’t even find it that different that Harry didn’t have his long locks anymore, too entertained with pulling Harry’s hat from his head all the time.

That was probably one of the reasons why Harry decided to stick with the cap for his outfit more times other than just because he still found it weird that his hair was short. Louis loved it; the short hair, the cap, everything, and was proud of Harry for coming out of his shell and being comfortable with himself too. Now, looking at him walking among his students sporting that look, he was pretty sure that Harry didn’t care anymore of what others would think of him, even if Niall still made fun of it.

“What are you even talking about? You’re wearing a paper boy hat, that’s even more embarrassing,” Lottie snapped back, her voice a bit offended for Harry.

“But I don’t wear them all the time!” Niall puffed.

“Mate, you were wearing them the last time I saw you,” Louis snickered.

“C’mon Tommo!” Niall bumped his shoulder with Louis’, laughing embarrassedly and Louis took the opportunity to take off Niall’s hat from his head, earning a squeal from him.

“Wow, what’s going on here?” Harry approached them with a confused yet amused expression.

“Nialler says that he doesn’t wear his hat all the time, so I decided that he didn’t need to wear it now since I saw him with it last time.” Louis stepped away from Niall and threw the hat towards Harry, who was lost for a moment but managed to drop his bag on the floor to catch it.

“Will you take off Harry’s hat too?” Niall complained, crossing his arms over his chest, his hair hazardous, pointing in every direction.

Louis couldn’t help but smile smugly at him. “Not that you need to know, but that’s for later, Horan.” He winked, earning a disgusted expression from Niall and the girls before he turned to Harry, to see his cheeks getting flushed.

“Alright, that’s TMI, thank you very much,” Lottie interrupted the banter, “here’s your hat, Ni,” she took it from Harry’s a bit shocked self and handed it back to its rightful owner. “Everybody looks good and rather charming with hats. Harry might have started a new trend in Hogwarts, one we’ll be sad to miss out on though,” she laughed looking at Danny, who nodded.

“What’s wrong with my hat?” Harry asked, furrowing his brows.

“Nothing, love. Niall was taking the piss out of you, as always, don’t mind him,” Louis moved closer to him, smiling. “Hi there,” he finally greeted Harry, kissing him quickly on the lips. He did it without thinking, only wanting to have Harry near him again after not seeing him the previous weekend due to the amount of school work and tests Harry had to correct and couldn’t make it to London. Louis was missing his boyfriend a tad too much and he didn’t take into consideration that they were still surrounded by Harry’s former and current students. It was the first time they had been out among them and Louis didn’t even think if it was alright to do that or not, because he was used to acting that way when Lottie and Niall were around. It didn’t stop him from being cuddly with Harry in public, though, wrapping one arm around Harry’s middle after he distanced himself.

“Hi,” Harry smiled back at him a second later, “and of course I won’t, Niall has no sense of fashion, I should be the one taking the piss out of him,” he teased, making a silly face at Niall, who returned showing him his middle finger very subtly.

“Oi, of course I do! I have to look proper sharp to go to work,” Niall defended himself, fixing his hat on top of his head again.

“Considering how little we know about Niall’s job, that could be true. He could be a model, even!” Louis joked, seeing Niall roll his eyes.

“I really could and you’d continue not knowing,” he pointed out, “but why are we talking about my career? Shouldn’t we be heading to the Leaky Cauldron already to start interrogating these two about what they are going to do with their NEWTs results and which careers they will choose for the rest of their lives?”

Both Lottie and Danny sighed tiredly at the same time.

“Niall, please!” Lottie cried out.

“Ugh, no!” Danny whined.

The other three laughed at their expense.

“As the official adults here, it’s our duty to do that,” Louis said, moving to get Harry’s bag that he had dropped on the floor. “But we can leave that for later, let’s have some fun first, right?”

“As I said before, I’m hungry, so please, yes, let’s get going.” Niall clapped his hand, taking the lead to start moving towards the exit of the platform.

“You’re always hungry, Niall,” Lottie remarked, laughing as she got her trunk in hand and started walking again along with Danny.

Harry and Louis followed behind them, Louis still holding Harry by the waist, squeezing him closer as they started walking at the same pace.

As they were about to get closer to the pillar that led them to the outside of the platform, Louis saw a lanky boy with bright yellow hair – yes, bright yellow, it wasn’t even a natural blond – waiting near it with a smaller boy by his side, with a more normal appearance and brown hair.

“Tomlinson, Napolitano.” The boy greeted the girls as they walked past them. Lottie and Danny waved at him gently. “Hope to see you around soon.”

They nodded in return, saying a “you too, Lupin, take care” and went through the pillar.

“Niall Horan, long time no see.” He smiled widely at Niall when he passed by them.

“Hey Ted, heard you became Head Boy this year. Congratulations!” Niall stopped for a moment. “Leaving Hogwarts with an impressive mark, ay?” He extended his arm to shake hands with the boy.

“Might say I left some other marks at the school, but let’s try to remember only the good ones,” Ted replied. “At least I managed to keep mini Potter here out of trouble on his first year.”

“Oh,” Niall sounded surprised as Louis and Harry stopped beside him. “You’re Harry Potter’s son? It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He took his hat off, almost bowing to the younger boy.

The boy was looking warily at Niall but took the hand he offered to him nonetheless.

“Stop being a fanboy, Niall,” Harry whispered to Niall, who quickly recomposed himself, smiling, a bit embarrassed. “Ted, James, hi! Hope you had a good ride back to London. You’re going home now?” Harry addressed the boys.

“It was good, Professor Styles. We had a bit of celebratory Hufflepuff party, as you can see,” Ted pointed to his own hair, laughing and Harry laughed along. “And yeah, we’re just waiting for the Potters to arrive,” he patted the boy, who Louis now knew to be James, on the shoulder.

“Alright then, have a good trip home. Hope to see you around, Ted. And James, see you back at Hogwarts after summer,” he smiled down at James, who nodded back enthusiastically.

“See ya, copycat,” Ted said to Harry with a smirk on his lips.

Harry shook his head, chuckling. “See ya, Lupin. Hogwarts will miss you.”

Both boys waved at their professor as Harry pulled Louis along to start walking again and Niall followed them, the three boys going through the pillar then.

“Copycat?” Louis asked once they stepped between Platform 9 and 10.

“Remember when I told you my mum named me after another famous wizard called Harry?” Harry shook his head, taking Louis’ arm from his waist to link their hands together.

“Oh, that’s the Harry Potter Niall almost hyperventilated talking about in front of the boy? Wait, that was the bloke’s son?”

“The bloke–” Niall sounded almost exasperated, “Merlin, he is only the wizard who saved us all from doom, but yeah, let’s call him just an ordinary bloke.”

Harry snorted beside Louis. “Anyway, yeah, that’s him and that’s his son. Ted’s actually his Godson, so back when I only studied at Hogwarts and even now that I came back to teach, he calls me copycat because I have the same name as Harry, obviously.”

“Oh,” Louis replied, joining the dots. “That’s funny. I like him, he has a good sense of humour for teasing you.” He poked Harry on his cheek.

“He’s cool, very funny to be around indeed,” Harry giggled, batting Louis’ hand away. “As I said, Hogwarts will miss having him around. We’ll miss a lot of people this year, actually.” He sighed, a bit sadly.

“You don’t have to cry because your favorite student won’t be there anymore, Styles. You won’t get rid of her,” Niall commented as they walked closer to where Lottie and Danny were awaiting them. “Unless you decide to break up with Louis again, then that’s another story,” he tried to joke.

“Shut your fucking mouth, Niall!” Harry smacked Niall on the head, sounding angry at Niall’s remark.

Louis laughed out loud, knowing Niall was only trying to be funny.

Niall sprinted away from Harry cackling, approaching Lottie and Danny in a second.

Harry inhaled deeply as he squeezed Louis’ hand in his. “I won’t, you know that,” he spoke and Louis could actually feel the concerned tone in his voice.

He stopped them from walking briefly to look right at Harry. “I know you won’t, and neither will I, c’mon.” Louis reassured him with a quick kiss on the lips, smiling at him afterwards.

Harry’s eyes glowed with contentment. “Yeah,” he replied after letting out a sigh and started walking again.

After that, they moved to walk to a more isolated part outside of the station so they could all apparate to Diagon Alley and finally enjoy the night in warm celebration for Lottie and Danny.

The Leaky Cauldron was more crowded than Louis had hoped it to be, but with Harry by his side he didn’t feel self-conscious for being surrounded by wizards again. It was a bit intimidating, he couldn’t lie, because he hadn't hung out like that with Harry yet; it was usually only the two of them, or them and Lottie or sometimes with Liam but mostly at Louis’ flat, or with Niall and they would usually go for a drink at a normal pub in London. Now, Louis was fully immersed in Harry’s world and he knew that he shouldn’t worry. As long as he had Harry beside him it would be alright.

He felt more relaxed as the night went on, and they chatted away. Louis even behaved himself when they met with Tommy, but only because Harry had asked him to do so, reminding him how he felt when Gemma had met Louis, warning him how Lottie would probably feel too. Louis wouldn’t pull something like that (although he had to admit he admired Gemma for doing it), but he controlled himself, even if he let one or two comments out, but in a lighthearted way, joined by Niall in the teasing. They talked and joked around and Louis was happy to spend the time with them, with the people he had close to his heart.

If he looked back at his life, so many years before, he wouldn’t have imagined anything like that would happen. After finding out about Lottie being a witch, he started to accept that his reality would change for good, especially after meeting Harry, even going through what they had. Going back only a couple of years before, even only a few months, Louis didn’t think he would find himself in this place again, didn’t see a future where he could be engrossed by magic like this once more, letting it be an even bigger part of his life. He didn’t think he would feel so happy and in love again, but there he was and he hoped that the feeling would last for a long time.

The past almost six months had gone by easier and quicker than Louis had expected and had also been the best time Louis had had in a long time. He and Harry still had a lot to work on, they were still reconnecting and learning about themselves again, but if he considered everything, they were already in a good place in their relationship. They tried their best not to let the ghosts of the past haunt what they were building, ignoring the memories of a forgotten day in April, nor letting the four month mark make them doubt if they would be able to make it past it. Of course they discussed a lot about what happened and sometimes, because of stubbornness from one or the other or because it was hard to keep seeing each other only once a week, they would have silly arguments where they would get irritated at each other, but that was how relationships were supposed to work. Nobody was perfect and Harry and Louis were far from it, even more being so different as they were. But they made it work and they were still making it work despite everything that could be in their way.

He knew people from outside would judge what they had if they knew how different he and Harry were, but he actually didn’t mind what others thought. It didn’t matter if they received a few weird and wary looks from other patrons in the place or from students who were also celebrating with their families the end of the school term there and came to talk to Harry when they spotted him and saw him perched beside Louis. Harry didn’t seem bothered by that, not stopping cuddling or snuggling Louis, sharing a sweet kiss here and there. And if Harry didn’t mind or wasn’t worried about what his own people thought about him being with someone like Louis, then Louis knew he shouldn’t either.

What they had was what mattered the most for him, and Louis would cherish it as long as he had Harry by his side. And he knew they would keep going for a long time. Summer was arriving and with it the promise of them spending it together. Louis couldn’t wait to see where life would take them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively, this is also the hat Harry was wearing at the Platform: [x](https://78.media.tumblr.com/721dbde043da2b4c528f41d4e82cf5da/tumblr_p201jvux8c1vpshjao3_400.gif) / [x](https://78.media.tumblr.com/984aa00b8e86752ca729192305c81d37/tumblr_p201jvux8c1vpshjao5_400.png) :D  
> This was a short one but we hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for Summer with H&L soon! xx


	5. Summer 2016

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fun revelations in this one! Hope you enjoy it! xx

Summer was going too fast and too slow at the same time for Harry. It felt like it had been only yesterday he and Lottie had come back from Hogwarts to stay with Louis for the summer. They started by celebrating Lottie’s graduation, and it had been a fun night out with everybody, then going right back to Louis’ flat to spend the weekend together until Lottie had to go to Doncaster by herself. After that, Harry and Louis could finally start their long summer plans.

Harry had been looking forward to it since Louis had brought up what they would do once the school year for both of them was over. With teaching jobs, they realized that they’d have their breaks at the same time and therefore could spend much more time together. It wasn’t even hard to come up with the idea of Harry staying over at Louis’ for their holiday time, when they could just enjoy their time together, go back to their parent’s once in awhile, but also do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. And Harry was too eager to have time to spend it fully with Louis, had been wanting for nothing more than that for months.

The past six months had gone by too fast and too slow as well. Getting back with Louis and getting to spend time with him again was something that took Harry awhile to completely grasp that it was finally happening. The first few days he had spent with Louis after the New Years made Harry feel like he was living in a parallel universe, or in a dream in which he would soon wake up from and Louis wouldn’t be there with him (like it had happened a few times in the last four years). That didn’t happen though, and Harry got to have Louis back with him, had Louis wanting to be with him too and that was more than he had ever expected to go back to when meeting him again (he had hopes, he wouldn’t deny it; he knew what he wanted, he just didn’t know how much he would be able to get back from Louis. Things simply ended up escalating between them, in a bad way at first, but then in a good one in the end).

Going back to Hogwarts knowing that he and Louis would give themselves a chance of being together again was soothing but also a bit terrifying. Harry knew it wouldn’t be easy, because it had never been that easy before. He couldn’t lie to himself that he wasn’t insecure about this new relationship they were getting themselves into. There was a lot that could go wrong, past feelings that Harry knew wouldn’t be so easy to erase, but he was willing to try and willing to make things right for Louis, and he hoped for Merlin Louis wouldn’t change his mind about him and about what he felt.

It was challenging and Harry was doing his best, in any way he could to show Louis that he was in it for as long as they could make it, hopefully for the long run. And he knew that for Louis it was the same; even with Louis still guarded, he knew it. It was a relationship in the works, they were taking things slowly (as slow as they could, because with the head start they had, there wasn’t much room for slow things), trying to find their pace.

They were being careful, testing the waters on how to go on with it and Harry knew it wouldn’t be an easy path to take. Somehow though, along the weekends spent together, getting to know each other again (their best and worst sides again, because of course they weren’t the same and things had changed, they had changed and everybody had their flaws and perks; they just had to learn how to deal with them to make their relationship work) and exchanging letters, they fell into a routine. Once they found how they worked together and how to make room for each other into their lives again, things just seemed to work themselves out from then on. It was a progression of things happening, even though sometimes it felt like they had stopped taking things slowly and had dived right into it, right into a relationship both wanted.

Some things, on the other hand, would still take time, but it wasn’t anything nerve wracking or that would make Harry doubt what they were building. He knew they were both on the same page, he didn’t need Louis voicing it to know. They talked a lot about how they felt, about what was working and what wasn’t and how they wanted to continue with what they had. There wasn’t any part of Harry that wasn’t sure Louis didn’t feel what he really showed him, especially when Louis was the one who was always instigating them to just talk. Louis was in it as much as Harry; he could feel it in everything Louis did, in every word Louis said through letters, in every way Louis showed him, in bed and outside of it. However, he couldn’t deny that he felt a lot lighter to hear Louis say those three words back to him in the most unexpected way and situation, those three words Harry hadn’t held himself back from saying since day one. After that, everything just fell more into place and Harry was even more sure that they were doing the right thing.

At the same time, handling the distance was hard. It was not that Harry minded going to London every weekend; that was what he longed for the most and that was why Harry felt things going slow sometimes. The week was what would always drag too long to pass and only an exchange of letters between them didn’t seem enough, but there wasn’t much Harry could do. He couldn’t go to London more times during the week, and Louis could never go to Hogwarts to visit him, so there wasn’t any other choice for them other than only wait and then enjoy and make the best of their time together.

That's why the prospect of spending the whole summer together was so exciting for Harry. He was ready to really feel like he was sharing his time with Louis, giving him his proper attention (not that he hadn’t when they had spent the weekends together. He had, in all possible ways he could think of). He knew it was far from it, but spending more time with Louis would almost give him a glimpse of what sharing a life with him would look like, and he couldn’t wait for it to happen (both the summer and the lifelong commitment).

Deciding on what to do and where to go was weeks-long conversations that they only managed to finally settle once they were both off duty from their works and back at Louis’ flat, no Lottie and no Liam to bother them. Louis had told Harry that Liam found a gig with a newcomer DJ and was going on tour with him for the summer, so that was one less thing to worry about. Not that Liam was a problem, but Harry had to always police himself about the things he could do and talk about around him. In the past it was easier because whenever Harry had visited Louis, Liam was never home; now that Liam had gotten to actually know Harry and they spent more time together, Harry had to contain himself more around his boyfriend’s clueless muggle best mate.

Harry liked Liam, but to be honest, he was just glad that Liam wouldn’t be around, so he could enjoy his time with Louis even more. That was, when they wouldn’t be going back home and visiting their parents. They decided they would spend at least one week with each family, balancing their family time with some well deserved alone time in London in between.

They started off going back to Holmes Chapel as Harry hadn’t gone back home since his birthday and much because of Anne’s pleading and also Gemma’s pestering to see Louis again. It still made Harry a little nervous to see Louis interact with his family, worried that Louis would feel like he didn’t fit in with them, but once they arrived there and he saw just how warmly his family welcomed Louis again and how Louis adjusted to their magic life without problems, Harry realised that all he wanted was to have both these parts of his life together and in harmony. The week at his Mum’s was great and after Anne’s warning that Harry should drop by more times because “ _you’re not in America or Africa anymore, Harry Edward Styles. Scotland is one apparition away from here, you better pay your mother more visits than only once in a full moon, for Merlin’s sake_ ”, which made both him and Louis feel self-conscious that they were reserving their weekends only for themselves, they went back to London for a few days before another round of family visiting in Doncaster the following week.

Going to Louis’ family home wasn’t much different than their time in Holmes Chapel, only adding to the equation a set of cute baby twins and excited teenage girls. Harry was already used to the Tomlinson-Deakin family, having gone back there after the New Years and for Easter and each time he came back, it didn’t even feel like he was the odd wizard out. Louis’ family was lovely and welcoming as ever; as much as Harry had dreaded that they would have painted him as the bad guy in what happened with him and Louis back during Christmas, they never showed him that. They had long forgotten about it just like he and Louis had moved on from that. Getting to spend time with them, getting to do more muggle things than he was used to while he was only with Louis was one of Harry’s best pastime. The love he felt for them before only grew and he knew he already considered them family – Lottie was not only his boyfriend’s sister for him; she was like the little sister he never had and Jay treated him just like she treated Louis and her other 6 children and it meant more to Harry than he could say.

Seeing both his and Louis’ families accepting each one of them meant that they were truly in each other’s lives and it warmed Harry’s heart because that had been something he had longed to have for quite some time that it was almost hard to believe he had finally gotten it. Each day that passed and that he had Louis with him showed Harry that he wouldn’t have it any other way and only wanted their lives to intertwine even more.

It had been almost a month into their holiday and Harry could really see that happening, even more with how promptly Louis had accepted to travel to Ireland just as Niall had suggested during a night out they had together in London. Niall had finally gotten some time off from the Ministry and suggested Harry and Louis to visit the Emerald Isles with him, being too long since Harry had last visited his family back there. It was a sudden invitation but one that not only Harry but also Louis seemed excited about. That would be another step for them, because the Horans were Harry’s second family and Louis would be even more immersed into Harry’s world, not to say that would be their first time actually travelling together – not only small trips back home.

So, traveling to Ireland they did, and through another means of transportation this time, one that got Louis almost giving up last minute.

“So, you’re telling me,” Harry saw Louis inhaling deeply as he held both his hands on the straps of his backpack, “that we are going to touch this old boot and I am going to be sent to fucking Ireland?”

“Basically, yeah,” Niall answered him, snorting through his nose, amused by Louis’ desperation. “Portkeys are usually the safest way to travel for those who can’t apparate, it’s quite practical.”

“Is it better than apparating?” Louis questioned, turning to Harry. It was easy to see Louis’ discomfort with magical means of transportation. He had gotten better used to side-along apparition, but still he complained every time he and Harry did so.

“I would say,” Harry puckered his bottom lip between his fingers, “it’s not that different. Side effects still include feeling a bit sick. I would say, though, it’s just not as fast as apparating, you’re not drastically transported to another place in a second.” Harry studied Louis’ face, trying to gauge his reaction. He hadn’t lied, but also he wouldn’t actually say that there wasn’t any real difference between both ways. He just needed Louis not to freak out about this.

Louis furrowed his brows, looking skeptically from the old shoe on the floor of his flat, then back to Harry again and lastly to Niall.

“If I lose a member because of any of you, I swear to God I’ll make both of you fly by airplane next time wherever we need to go.” He puffed, a bit irritated and Harry couldn’t help but fond at seeing his boyfriend’s reluctance.

“No way, not even over Dumbledore’s grave will I make myself fly inside a giant floating metal bathtub.” Niall shook his head alarmed.

“It’s safer than any of your crazy methods of transportation, believe me.”

“People die travelling by airplane, Louis, bloody hell!” Niall refuted.

Louis rolled his eyes. “I’d better die once and for all then lose my fucking head trying just to travel to another city, but yeah.”

“Alright you two,” Harry laughed amused at their exchange, “nobody will die or lose any limbs today. C’mon, we’re actually losing time. Is this thing time-activated, Niall?”

“Well, Mum asked us to arrive there before lunch, so I enchanted it for us to use it by noon,” Niall fixed his glasses over his eyes and got his suitcase in hand. “We can go whenever, if only Louis stops chickening out.”

“I’m not…” Louis sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, tiredly, “you know what. Let’s just fucking do it.”

“You sure?” Harry asked, checking one last time.

“Do I have any other choice?” Louis raised a brow at him, leading his hand to search for Harry’s. Harry shook his head, shrugging apologetically. “Thought so,” Louis got closer to him, pecking him on his lips quickly as he took Harry’s hand in his. “Let’s go then. Are you sure we aren’t forgetting anything?”

“Nope, I double checked everything earlier. All good, the flat is neat and all we need is packed. Marcel will be waiting for us there.” Harry smiled, squeezing Louis’ hand in his.

“Finally!” Niall cheered. “Then let’s fucking go, I’m already hungry and craving my mum’s roast. Tommo, don’t let go of Harry’s hand and just follow his lead. You don’t wanna arrive in Mullingar falling on your arse or face,” Niall beamed at him and Louis only flickered him off, making Niall let out a squeal of laughter. “Alright then. On my count of three, we grab the boot, deal?”

Harry nodded and looked to his side to see Louis agreeing too, his hand now going up to grip tighter at Harry’s arm. In his other hand, Harry held his suitcase and prepared himself for Niall’s countdown.

Apparently, travelling by portkey hadn’t been that much of a problem for Louis. He complained, as it was expected, but much less than he did when they’d apparate. Louis only had needed to take a breather, hands on his knees, sparing a moment to recompose himself, but besides that, all had gone well. They arrived safely, landing smoothly on Niall’s mum’s back garden and soon they were greeted by Niall’s family and welcomed inside their home.

The week then went by pleasantly. Harry didn’t have to worry much about how Louis would fit in a new place and how Niall’s family would treat him. They all got along really well and in a short time Louis was chatting along with Maura while Harry caught up with her news, or having the time of their lives when Niall took them to meet with Greg to know what he had been up to in the Irish Quidditch team, getting to know Theo, Niall’s nephew, and also Niall’s father while they tried to make both Harry and Louis join them for a match.

First things first, they had to make Louis learn how to fly a broom, which was quite the entertainment. Surprisingly, Louis seemed to be a better flyer than Harry had ever been in his short 22 years of life. Of course Niall and Louis mocked him because of that, even more when Harry managed to fall off from his broom more times than Louis did (later that night, though, Harry got Louis back for it, proving to him that if he wasn’t that good at riding a broom, he compensated for it in his other riding abilities in their _silencio_ ’ed guest room).

Just like the other weeks, their time in Ireland had gone by too fast and soon it was time for them to go back. Harry was definitely happy that he and Louis had done that, travelled together somewhere else, enjoying their time away from what they were used to, getting to know how they worked outside of their comfort zone and knowing that they did actually work well that way. They had a fun and lovely week and as much as they would like to spend more time off there, they didn’t want to overstay their welcome. Niall would still spend a couple more days with his family before going back to his work at the Ministry, so Harry and Louis would have to go back alone to London, this time apparating (without Louis even complaining for a change).

They left Mullingar on a late Sunday afternoon, with a promise of paying the Horans another visit some other time and meeting up with Niall once he got back to London and had free time again.

Getting his luggage in one hand and Louis in his other after saying their goodbyes, Harry focused on Louis’ flat in London. He braced himself, closing his eyes to concentrate on the long distance journey and making sure Louis was secured beside him before he made both of them go back home.

In a few seconds, Harry felt his feet colliding on Louis’ flat wooden floor. He thought he had successfully apparated, his balance completely on point, only to be almost thrown backwards because of a loud scream.

He opened his eyes alarmed, thinking it might’ve been Louis screaming beside him, a million thoughts a second going through his mind that Louis somehow had splinched himself. But when he saw Louis beside him with all four limbs (he counted) and nothing wrong but a horrified face, he realized the scream had been too high for it to have been Louis’. Before he turned to check on the source, he saw Louis’ face go from horror to concerned to downright outraged all at once.

“What the _fuck_ , Liam?!”

Louis sounded completely bewildered, dropping his backpack on the floor and letting go of Harry, both hands raising slowly as if he couldn’t grasp what he was seeing. Out of the corner of his eyes, Harry had managed to see bits and pieces of it, but only when he turned fully to look at Liam did he understand where Louis’ reaction was coming from.

“WHAT THE FUCK LOUIS? WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?” Liam was still yelling, his voice so high it faltered, his shaking hands gripping his own chest and eyes huge behind the... mask. The Batman mask that he was wearing. Along with boxers and (thankfully) a shirt while standing on their couch as if he was a hyperactive child copying his favourite superhero (or like a dog scared of fireworks or his apparating best friends).

Harry snickered, trying to hold back his laughter as he looked at Liam freaking out in front of them, and at Louis’ indignation beside him. Considering his overall plans from coming back home, apparating in front of a _Liam Wayne_ wasn’t in his list. And then it dawned on him, Harry’s very own freak out self while the others continued on theirs, that they had just apparated on their living room in front of Batman-Liam.

Liam, a muggle (non-superpowered).

Liam, who had no idea magic existed (outside of TV).

Liam, who didn’t know Harry was a wizard (outside of Halloween).

“Louis,” Harry murmured, voice low but conveying how dire the situation was to Louis, who seemed to grasp it, closing his mouth and stopping the teasing that was obviously about to come out of it after realizing what had just happened.

“Fuck,” Louis voiced Harry’s thoughts, his hands running through his hair then down to his face again, exasperatedly.

“What the hell just happened?! How did you get inside, I just… I just saw you…” Liam lifted a finger to point at both of them, shaking in surprise, “appear out of thin air, what the actual fuck,” he raised both hands to his head, crooking the mask a little bit. “Am I dreaming? _Is this a dream?_ No, it can’t be, I never fall asleep while watching The Dark Knight, this isn’t Returns,” he whispered to himself. “What the…”

Liam was completely out of himself. He managed to get down from the couch and walk closer to where Harry and Louis were standing, unsure of themselves or how to proceed. “Are you real, Louis?” He asked in a whisper and put both hands over Louis’ face, touching all over it and then coming for Harry to do the same.

To have Batman-Liam touch his face and ask him if he was real, voice shaken as if he was a ghost was on Harry’s Top 3 Most Surreal Experiences of That Year, right next to fucking the New Year in with Louis and having a student translate one of his Pompeii antique pieces as an _“ancient bootycall, sir”_. Harry could feel himself having an out of body experience, watching both his and Louis’ catatonic faces being smushed by a Batman wannabe, black cape draping over his shoulder and all.

“I’m not dreaming, you’re real, both of you. What the fuck,” Liam whispered, distressed, as he stepped back and finally took his mask off, revealing to both Harry and Louis the expression of pure confusion on his face.

“Merlin,” Harry breathed out, licking his lips, chuckling nervously and looking to his side to find Louis also lost. “Louis…”

Louis closed his eyes for a second, rubbing his temple with his fingers.

“Will anybody explain to me what happened? Because I’m not stoned, I have slept the whole Saturday, I’m not being delirious and I’m pretty sure I just saw both of you simply show up in front of me. I was looking right at where you guys appeared, like, it was… _magic_. What the fuck?” Liam was trying to calm himself, Harry could see, but still he was apparently almost on the verge of losing his mind or passing out at any moment.

Harry almost laughed at Liam’s words of magic, but he contained himself. Louis, on the other hand, opened his eyes at that and let out a snort.

“Calm down, Liam Wayne,” he shook his head, finally looking at Harry. “We have to tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Liam questioned, anxiously.

Now it was Harry’s time to lead his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes and then running his fingers over his short hair.

He needed to ponder what to do. They could in fact tell Liam, but that had a lot of implications. He could, as a last and more effective solution, simply obliviate him. It was the wisest thing to do, he knew it, but for that he would have to sit down with Louis and decide if that was what he also wanted for his friend, because… If Harry considered everything, it was a miracle this was only the first slip up, and if he was realistic, no matter how cautious they were from now on, there would be many more anyway. And if he and Louis were indeed heading for a long term relationship, Liam would still be part of Louis’ life as closely as he was, so he would need to know. They couldn’t keep it a secret from him forever. If they didn’t tell him now, then in the future they would have to tell him and why delay something that could hinder Louis’ friendship with Liam, that could also hinder Harry and Louis’ relationship somehow?

They would have to tell him.

“Yeah, we do.” Harry finally said, as he breathed deeply and gathered his courage to do what they were about to.

Louis nodded at him, a discreet smile on his lips as he took his bag in his hand again and walked closer to Liam.

“Payno, let’s take a seat, mate,” Louis approached him and put a hand on his shoulder and led him back to the couch. “We have some things to discuss. I’m dying to know what the hell you were doing wearing your Batman costume, but I guess I don’t have to wonder much.” Louis tilted his head towards the TV, Harry noticing the movie kept playing as they moved to sit on the couch.

“Don’t blame me, Tommo. You really think I’d lose the opportunity of an empty flat to watch Batman without wearing my costume?” He laughed wryly.

Louis shook his head and Harry chuckled as he sat beside him.

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Louis rolled his eyes, “but… that’s not the important thing here at the moment, as much as I want to take the piss out of you. There’s something more important that you might be wondering, I mean… I’d be too if what happened right now had been with me.”

Liam stared widely from Louis to Harry. “Dude, I’m really freaking out right now, because the way you’re speaking, it almost seems like there’s a logical explanation for what happened other than me still being asleep or under some drug I’m not aware I took.”

Louis didn’t say anything, only looked back at Harry and he knew that there wasn’t much Louis could say. That was on him to explain.

“There is an explanation, Liam,” Harry started, gulping dryly. “It might not sound logical to you, because it’s not something you’d actually believe in, but it’s true.”

Liam’s brows shot up to his forehead. “Okay, and what the hell is it?”

Harry took a deep breath again and Louis searched to hold his hand, encouraging him to continue. Merlin, he felt like he was coming out to his family all over again.

“You know how you guys always watch movies and read books about sorcerers and witches and wizards and magic?” Harry tried to think of the easiest way to explain it, waiting for Liam to catch up with what he was saying. Liam nodded his head, his brows now creasing, but giving Harry the cue to keep talking. “So, all of that happens to be not only things from people’s imagination. Well, they are, but because there’s truth behind them, because they’re based off reality. Magic and wizards are actually real.”

“You mean, magicians?” Liam asked, confused.

Louis snickered beside him and Harry squeezed his hand, as in a way to make him be comprehensive and not make fun of his clueless friend.

“No, not magicians. Those are illusions and tricks, Liam,” Louis spoke, his voice collected and Harry wanted to thank Merlin for Louis knowing when to actually stop joking around.

“I’m talking about actual wizards, actual witches, Liam. Ones who can do magic, real magic. Witchcraft,” Harry added.

“Now you are talking rubbish. There’s no such thing as magic, witchcraft, what the fuck.” Liam was completely baffled, looking from Harry to Louis as if they had gone mad.

“There is, and, well, what you just saw was me practicing it. I’m a wizard, Liam.” Harry shrugged. He decided to cut it short and say it once and for all because there wasn’t much else to tell Liam. His words would have to convince him, and probably him doing a charm in front of him for Liam to finally see that what he was saying was true.

“No fucking way, that’s impossible.” Liam shook his head, both his hands on either side of it.

“Do you have a better explanation for what you just saw, Liam? You said so yourself just a few moments before that it was just like magic. Well, you were right,” Louis interjected.

“I was joking, I didn’t know. It was a figure of speech, I wouldn’t know, of course, I just… no. That’s... shit,” Liam got up, pacing around the coffee table in front of the couch. “You can’t do that. You can’t just appear out of nowhere because of _magic_ ,” he laughed humorlessly, “it’s impossible, it’s against the laws of nature, what the fuck.”

Louis laughed beside Harry. “Dude, Liam, seriously. It’s not and I’m telling you I just freaking showed up here from fucking Ireland, in two seconds.”

“ _You what?!_ ” Liam shouted, perplexed.

“That’s called apparating,” Harry tried to keep his cool and not laugh at Liam’s disbelief. “That’s just one of the things I, hm, _we_ wizards can do. If you want me to do something to prove to you that you’re not going mad, that you’re not hallucinating, I will.”

“How will I know it’s not an illusion then?” Liam stopped in his tracks, looking directly at Harry, warily, almost daring him.

“Well, you’d have to just believe what you see,” Harry breathed in and took his wand from inside his jeans pocket. “This is a wand, it allows us to do magic. We just have to say some incantations and mostly whatever we want can happen. For example, I can turn your Batman mask into an actual bat.” Harry pointed his wand to where Liam had left his mask on the couch and with a flick, the black object turned into a bat, flying around the room.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Liam exclaimed, both hands going to his head again as he watched the bat fly near him.

“ _Immobulus_ ,” Harry said, pointing again to the bat, making it freeze in the middle of the air. “See?”

“You didn’t need to put an actual bat inside my house, Harold, but that’s a good way to prove it to Leeyum,” Louis joked, patting Harry’s thigh.

Liam was paralyzed in front of them, looking completely taken aback by what he was seeing.

“Fuck.” That was all he managed to say.

Harry flickered his wand again, making the bat transform back into Liam’s mask, whispering a _Wingardium Leviosa_ under his breath to make it float towards Liam. He kept the object there until Liam stopped staring at it and tentatively reached for it, carefully, afraid even.

“It’s your mask again, Liam. It won’t turn into a bat in your hands, you can catch it.” Harry advised.

Liam exhaled and finally took the mask in hand and Harry let go of his wand.

“So, now you believe it?” Louis got up from the couch, walking up to Liam and squeezing his hand on his best friend’s shoulder.

Harry saw Liam closing his eyes and breathe in and out a few times before he spoke again and looked from Louis and then to Harry one more time. “I would be an idiot to say I don’t, because, there’s no other way to explain this other than actual magic, even as unbelievable as it is. But yeah, I believe it, I just… I just don’t get it. Like, obviously there’s a lot I don’t get, but… when did this happen? Did you become a wizard joining a ritual in some tribe you visited in Africa or what?”

“What?!” Now it was Louis’ turn to exclaim incredulously.

Harry laughed out loud. “No! That’s not how… no, Liam! I’m a wizard, have always been. I was born a wizard, my whole family is of wizards.”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Liam walked back to the couch. “You’re telling me, all this time... All this fucking time, even when you guys dated before, you’ve been a wizard?”

“Yup.” Harry nodded and Louis joined him again on the couch too.

“And how long have you known?” Liam directed the question to Louis.

“Since always,” Louis shrugged. “Liam, Harry is not the only wizard you know.”

“Don’t tell me you’re a wizard too, what the fuck Tom–”

“NO!” Louis yelled. “No, I’m not a wizard, Christ, Liam,” he let out a chuckle. “Lottie is the other wizard. She’s a witch, that’s how I met Harry. I’ve known Lottie’s a wizard since she was 11. Long story short, Lottie and Harry studied together at this wizarding school and years later Harry became her teacher. That’s basically it without getting too much into detail.”

Liam’s eyes were running like crazy from Louis to Harry, his breathing getting erratic at the amount of information he was absorbing at the moment.

“Okay, that’s a lot to take in.”

“We know,” Harry spoke, sympathetically. He knew it wasn’t easy for someone outside of his world to understand it. Louis and his family understood it because they had been introduced to it the right way, but for someone like Liam, it all could be too overwhelming and Harry knew the risks for telling him all they had already said and everything else. “I’m sorry we had to hide it from you, Liam, but that’s just how things are. I shouldn’t even be telling you this now without authorization from the Ministry, we’ll have to deal with it later. I’m really sorry that you had to find out this way.”

“If we had known you’d be home, we wouldn’t have suddenly apparated here. Why didn’t you let me know you’d be done with your gig earlier?” Louis asked, intrigued.

“I tried to reach you, you arse. Your phone was out of area all the time I tried calling you. Now I know why, because you were in fucking Ireland in some magical land I suppose?” Liam snorted. “I’m pretty sure I mentioned my gig with Zedd would be over by the end of July, you must’ve forgotten. Anyway, I got here on Friday night.”

“Oh well, that’s on me then, my phone died while we were back there,” Louis raised his hands in a guilty gesture. “But, anyway, that’s not what matters. I’m sorry too, Liam. If I could, I would’ve told you about Lottie and Harry, but no one can know, no one outside my family knows. And there’s too much to know and understand. I don’t even understand it all and I’ve been living with all of this for seven years now. It’s a lot.”

“I need to get my head around it, fuck,” Liam sighed. “I’ll probably have to sleep on it to just… grasp that this is real.”

“I understand, Liam. Don’t worry. And again, I’m sorry for freaking you out.” Harry patted Liam’s shoulder, trying to be comprehensive.

“We might’ve freaked him out, but I was also freaked out to see him in a Batman costume in his fucking pants, what the hell, Payno,” Louis joked, getting the mask from Liam’s hand, inspecting it before trying to put it on his head. “How many times did you scream “ _WHERE ARE THEY?_ ” with this thing on?”

“Fuck off, Louis,” Liam tried to knock the mask off Louis’ hand and with that, they started fighting each other off, lightening the atmosphere after the big revelation that had just happened.

That had not been the end of it, though. There was a lot Liam wanted to know and through the course of the week that followed, Harry and Louis spent it trying to explain as much as they could to Liam, explaining how things worked and letting him know that no one could know about it outside of their circle (they had to get in touch with Niall as soon as he was back from Ireland so he could help them solve things with the Ministry). They also explained to him for real what had gone on between them, and Louis felt more free to make Liam understand what he didn’t know before and Harry also felt more free to finally be himself around Liam from then on.

It wasn’t something easy and fast, to make Liam grasp what was Harry’s world, but he knew that with time, he would get it. There wasn’t anything better than a nice opportunity to help them with that, it seemed.

Lottie’s birthday was coming up in the beginning of August and it had already been something she had talked about to Harry and Louis that she wanted to gather everyone to celebrate her 18th birthday. Liam hadn’t initially been considered in that equation because if Harry’s family, Niall, Tommy and Danny were also to go to Doncaster, he couldn’t be there among wizards. Now that he knew, and that they had told Lottie about him knowing, she was more than happy to invite him over as well.

Louis was a bit apprehensive to introduce Liam to the magical world so fast like that and make him acquainted with other wizards so soon, but Harry tried to reason with him that Liam had taken it even better than he actually thought he would. Liam hadn’t freaked out anymore, he hadn’t even showed any sign of dismissing Harry for who he was or having any judgments for it. Liam was a good lad, and Harry also considered him a friend and Louis being his best friend should see that the best thing was to include Liam in that other part of his life too.

That was what had happened to them that summer. Somehow, all parts of their lives had finally collided and with that, Harry could feel how much better it was to be with Louis completely, with Louis knowing every aspect of his life, of him. They had spent half of the year getting to know each other again, and the more open and honest they were with themselves, the more secure and steady their relationship had grown. They had something based on trust and truthfulness, not only about themselves but also about their feelings and that was how they could only continue if they wanted to keep on growing together.

It worked for them and it worked for other aspects of his life, so being sincere with Liam and letting him be fully part of their lives was only fair to someone they considered a close (and best) mate. So, taking Liam to Doncaster wouldn’t be a bad decision, they reckoned; it would only strengthen their friendship.

Eventually, Louis felt more relaxed about the idea and once they went to Doncaster (by car, because as much as Louis would have loved to see Liam freaking out for apparating, Harry managed to put a bit of sense into him for not making Liam feel bad or have an unpleasant experience. “ _Oh, so I can have as many unpleasant experiences just because it’s easier for you to apparate with me wherever and whenever you want?_ ” Louis had argued with him. Harry knew he wasn’t actually angry, because the joking tone was still in there. Louis was actually instigating something. “ _Well, I can make you forget about any bad experiences actually pleasing you after. You don’t want me doing that to Liam, do you?_ ” Harry teased, knowing Louis would take the bait. And he did, jumping on Harry onto the bed, caging him between his legs and arms. “ _Only for that comment alone I demand you make me forget the thought of you and Liam ever doing any pleasant things_.” Louis smirked at Harry before diving in for a heated kiss), both of them saw how a good idea that had been, to finally get everybody they had close to them finally meeting each other.

It had also been the first time Harry’s family and Louis’ would meet. Harry couldn’t deny it was a bit terrifying to have both their mothers at the same place, but there wasn’t much to worry, because the moment Jay and Anne had met, it was like they had known each other for the same time Harry had known Louis’ family, or for longer, even. They hit it off immediately, talking about their children, Anne endeared by the baby twins and Jay asking her many things about being a wizard mom. Robin and Dan had hit it off as well, engaging in conversation for most of the day. Louis’ sisters were mesmerized to finally meet Gemma after Lottie had talked so much about her. And obviously, Niall and Liam had suddenly and unexpectedly become best friends.

Harry couldn’t have expected more than that and he was too giddy for how well things had been going that day, had been going for him and Louis in the past few months.

“Did you ever think,” Harry suddenly asked as he was perched to Louis’ side on the bench they had claimed as their own in the back garden where the party was happening to eat the cake after everyone had sang Happy Birthday to Lottie, “that five years later we’d be here?”

“Uh?” Louis turned to face him, eating a piece of his cake.

“Five years ago, Lou,” Harry smiled, “we were basically in this same place, eating you mother’s cake, taking pictures of Lottie and her friends and,” Harry laughed, a bit shyly, “flirting with each other.”

Harry saw the moment Louis’ eyes sparkled, smiling fondly at him, making the crinkle by his eyes show a little bit more. “That was a good day,” Louis reminisced, “five years ago, I thought you were leading me on, playing with me.”

“I wasn’t!” Harry replied, defensively. “You know I was just scared, I dunno, terrified that what I felt was one sided. You were the cool older muggle boy, and I was just… me.” He hunched his shoulder a little.

“You weren’t _just_ you, babe,” Louis smiled brightly at Harry, leading his hand to run through Harry’s short locks, massaging his scalp a bit. “Well, you were you and that was enough to make me have a crush on you, my sister’s cool wizard friend.” He moved his hand to poke at Harry’s dimple.

“Oh, you had a crush on me,” Harry joked, poking Louis’ on his side in return.

“Well, who could resist you in those aviators?” Louis winked at him, taking another bite from the cake.

“I still have them somewhere, you know?” Harry drank from his juice, wiggling his eyebrows at Louis.

“You’re fucking with me. It’s been five years, Harry.” Louis shook his head, incredulously.

“I do!” Harry laughed. “I take good care of the things that matter to me, you know,” he said, earnestly.

“Even after all this time? Even after all we’ve been through?” Louis gave him a pointed look. He wasn’t being harsh to Harry, or even cornering him. It was mostly teasing, Harry knew. By now, every time they talked, it wasn’t that heavy anymore.

“Even then, especially then,” Harry beamed and kissed Louis on the cheek. “It’s not easy letting go of you, Lou. Five years ago I didn’t know what would happen with my life, but I knew I wanted you to be in it somehow. I know we were young but,” he shrugged, “I just knew there was something about you that was worth trying. And even if it took us another four years to figure our shit together, I still know you’re worth it.”

“Look now who had a crush on me too,” Louis bumped him with his shoulder.

“Hey, I’m here being all sentimental and stuff and you wanna make fun of me.” Harry pouted dramatically, which he knew would make Louis laugh, and he did, as well as getting closer to Harry to capture his lips on his.

“I love your romantic sap arse, Haz, you know that.” Louis nuzzled their noses together.

“You love my arse, that’s for sure,” Harry pointed out, emphatically and unashamedly, pecking on Louis’ lips again and nibbling softly on his bottom one.

“There’s children around, Harold, please.” Louis snorted and distanced himself.

“Is the lovely doe couple ready to take some pictures?” Lottie’s voice caught their attention as she approached them with her camera in hands, the same one she had gotten for Christmas.

“I’m eating, Lottie, sod off,” Louis said, filling his mouth with the last piece of his cake.

“You were almost eating each other’s face off, that’s what was happening, shut up,” she rolled her eyes at them, making Harry blush. “Now, just a picture, you saps. It’s been too long since I got one of you two.”

She didn’t even wait for them to adjust themselves before she snapped the photo.

“Ugh, Charlotte, you better delete it,” Louis complained as he cleaned his mouth with the back of his hand. “Go pester your boyfriend, for fuck’s sake.”

Harry snickered, shaking his head as Lottie winked at him.

“I’ve already taken many pictures with Tommy while you were in your corner of love here. And nah, you look cute. Even when you're both just standing next to each other, you look all loved up and adorable,” she simply smiled at them, turning around and looking for other people to take pictures of.

“She’s gonna print that, make a large copy of it, put it in a frame and make mum hang it on the wall.” Louis sighed, annoyed.

“Let her be, c’mon. I’m sure we didn’t look that bad,” Harry got his hand around Louis’ waist, bringing him closer. “We have lots of embarrassing pics already, what harm one more would do?”

“Are you talking about the [first one](https://78.media.tumblr.com/cec30bb472cafc8544ebff271375795f/tumblr_okcwfts7sL1vnwncjo1_1280.jpg) we took five years ago?” Louis looked at Harry, squinting his eyes.

“No, that’s my favourite.” Harry chuckled and kissed Louis on his cheek once again.

“That’s my favourite too,” Louis whispered beside Harry, snuggling up into his touch as they kept sitting on the bench, observing the rest of the party go on, that hot August afternoon being one of Harry’s favourite days from that summer so far.

It wasn’t over just yet, he still had almost a month until the classes resumed in Hogwarts again and he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his holiday with Louis. He knew it would pass in a heartbeat just like the summer and the previous months had gone by, but he would make the best of it. He was sure he and Louis would make the most of all the time they still could have with each other.


	6. October 2016

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: This chapter contains explicit smut (and also the one angst-ish scene in the entire fic (because Harry and Louis are stupid boys in love) :D who would we be if we didn't include at least one, right? :D But trust us, it's nothing to worry about!)
> 
> Also, we dedicate this chapter to An (our lovely tie kink anon), you'll know why ;) <3
> 
> Enjoy it! (and come scream at us about it haha)

The preparation for and the actual Hallowe’en Feast should’ve distracted Harry, should’ve helped him keep his mind occupied instead of filled with thoughts of “I really wish I was with Louis right now”.

He knew he was being a bit irrational and a tad moody as well, but in his defense, he hadn’t seen his boyfriend in over a week. That was normal for them, actually; the week-long separation they had to endure because of their lives and jobs was something they had learned to deal with for the past ten months. However, if Harry allowed himself to admit how he was really feeling, he would know that since September, since going back to Hogwarts, the longing and the distance between he and Louis had become a little bit harder for him to bear.

All that only because of the perfect summer break they had, never leaving each other’s side for over 2 months, spending every minute of every hour together. Even more in the last couple of weeks in August, after Lottie’s birthday, enjoying some downtime in London and just lazing around. They decided the best way to finish the break before heading back to their routines was to take a trip, only the two of them, no family or friend visiting.

It probably sounded like the greatest idea they had had, especially after discussing it and saying that it would be just like their week in Ireland, minus the part where Niall was in their tow most of the time. No, this time it would be just them, somewhere they could finally rest and enjoy themselves alone, away from chaotic London and boisterous families. It sounded nice to look for places they could go, searching for something that would be completely pleasant and affordable for both of them – something not too muggle neither too wizarding. Harry got some recommendation from Gemma and her good contacts from wizard journalists who had travelled all around the world, helping him and Louis decide on visiting some remote Portuguese islands in the Atlantic (with the Portuguese Harry had learned over in Brazil, it wouldn't be a problem for them). Somewhere amidst the beautiful bigger or smaller islands in the archipelago, there was a wizarding village they could visit and spend some time as well as some other more muggle populated places that Louis could also enjoy.

Everything fit like a glove for them and going to the Azores was indeed the greatest thing they could have done for the last part of their first holiday together. It felt like it had given them another opportunity to get closer, even closer than they had gotten over the almost eight months they had already been dating. Spending days relaxing on a beach, swimming in natural geothermal pools, hiking and doing other outdoors activities that kept Louis mostly complaining that he was not cut to do, or simply just lazily staying inside their hotel rooms, doing some other indoor activities Louis (and neither Harry) didn’t even bother to complain (Harry only complained about the burn between his thighs from their last night at the island, but that had been on him since he had asked Louis to let his beard grown and not shave for two weeks), was just the most perfect time for Harry, making him even more sure that spending his time with Louis and having Louis in his life was something he would never take for granted and would always cherish, would always want, would look forward to having for as long as they allowed themselves.

The only downside to it, though, was that all this excitement and want to having a life full of Louis had to be abruptly cut short as soon as they went back to London. Having to face reality this time seemed worse than it had been at the beginning of the year, because now Harry had gotten used, had gotten spoiled by Louis’ presence, had gotten impossibly more in love with him and reducing their time together to only a visit during the weekends and a letter in the middle of the week was like getting the golden snitch taken right from his fingertips by the opposite team’s seeker (or, in his case, probably more like almost finally getting to figure out what a phrase in Runes meant only to find out he had gotten one symbol completely wrong).

Harry started missing Louis much more and he could feel that for Louis it was the same. They tried to make up for the distance as much as they could when they saw each other, but sometimes it was not enough, especially when life would get in their way and some weekends were shorter than others (when Gemma wanted to hang out with Harry or Louis had to do some extra activity for school) or they couldn’t even find the time to be together, as it had happened the previous one before Halloween.

Louis would spend all Saturday taking care of his students and rehearsing with them for a play presentation that night and for their (un)luck, Harry had volunteered that Sunday to help Flitwick prepare the decorations for the Hallowe’en Feast that would take place on Monday. So, that weekend, neither of them were free and had to content themselves with only writing to each other as they always did, which made Harry miss his boyfriend even more.

Marcel had brought Louis’ letter back to him on Thursday and Harry wanted to ignore the doleful expression his owl had on his face, knowing very well it was because Louis himself was feeling that way just as he had sent Marcel back to him.

“You should be the one happy because you got to see him, you spoiled brat.” Harry scratched over the top of Marcel’s head, earning a short coo in return.

He was back at his dorm late at night when he finally finished correcting his student’s homework and gave himself the reward of reading Louis’ words, knowing that if he had done it the moment Marcel had arrived in the early afternoon, he probably wouldn’t be able to finish his task.

“For Merlin’s sake, Marcel you’re not helping me.” Harry inhaled deeply as he turned the envelope in his hand and Marcel tilted his head at him from where he was standing on top of Harry’s table.

“If I don’t read this right now, will it make me miss him less or more?” He closed his eyes for a brief moment before deciding that if he kept delaying it, it would probably be worse.

Marcel hooted louder, helping Harry make up his mind.

“Fine, I’ll read it, but only because I know Louis would want me to, okay? Not because _you_ are telling me to.”

He rolled his eyes at his pet’s long (and too sarcastic for an owl) hoot and finally opened the envelope.

_Hi babycakes, so glad to hear from you!_

_You have no idea how hellish this start of week has been for me. Fuck, it’s only Wednesday and I already feel like I want to tear my head out. I truly hope your week has been better than mine so far, from what you’ve told me. Sometimes I envy your students, or maybe your patience to deal with them haha_

_The kids here have been out of control during class and rehearsals, they’ve been talking nonstop about what Halloween costumes they’ll wear. If I see another two girls fighting because both of them want to be Harley Quinn but there can’t be two Harleys or two boys fighting because one thinks Batman is better than Iron Man (it was like watching me and Payno discuss it and now I know how annoying and childish LIAM may sound. But I’m sticking by Thomas’ side, he knows Tony is the badass one), I swear I’ll give up teaching kids for the rest of my life (kidding, I love those peanuts, but they are a fucking nightmare sometimes)._

_The worst part of it all is that I won’t even have you to comfort me during the weekend. Why did we agree to be such nice and committed teachers? Ugh._

_And then I’ll have to wait another week to see you and… Fuck, I just wish there was an easier way to be with you. I miss summer so much and I’m already counting the days until Christmas break. I can’t wait to just stay in the flat, in bed with you all day… Ok, I was first thinking about just being warm and cozy with you in bed, but well, I’m also looking forward to spend time_ _in bed_ _with you again, if you know what I mean ;)_

_(I’m talking about sex, Harold, please keep up. Last weekend we barely had time what with Liam never leaving the flat. I still feel sorry for him for his break up with Sophia but I’m still mad that you thought we should take pity on him and not do anything in sympathy. You’re ridiculous, seriously)_

_Anyway, bottom line is: I miss you and just thinking about spending two weeks without seeing you is dreading enough, along with the rest of this long arse week until Saturday when this freaking “The Nightmare Before Christmas” play is finally over._

_I hope you have a better time with your Halloween stuff. I know you said you’re excited and all, but I’m sure if you experienced my kind of Halloween you’d be even more excited to be dressing up as something or someone else. Maybe, this year you could try something, how about that? I don’t see you have many options for costumes, but imagine this: your students’ face to see you dressed up as them, ay? It could be fun haha Please tell me next week if you did it! Take a picture if you can, I’d love to see you in your uniform again (alright, my mind went there again. You BETTER send me a picture now, Haz. That’s the only way you’ll compensate for ditching me this Sunday)._

_Anyway again…_

_I’m wishing you a good rest of the week and a nice Halloween celebration, love._

_Can’t wait to talk to you and see you next week._

_I love you!_

_Yours,_

_Lou._

Harry almost clutched the piece of paper Louis had written to him against his chest. Merlin, he loved and missed Louis so much it was unfair they had to be apart most of the time.

He sighed deeply as he folded the letter and put it inside his drawer along with the rest of the others Louis had sent him over the year.

Marcel took a few small steps closer to him, nudging his beak against Harry’s arm.

“Thanks for your sympathy, buddy,” Harry laughed, as he ran the back of his finger under Marcel’s chin, receiving a happier chirp this time. “Yeah, we’ll see him next week, we can do this.”

Harry smiled to himself and tried to believe in his own cheerful words, that he could spend two weeks without Louis. That had already happened before, it was not the end of the world.

But, it kind of it was, because as Friday came and he wasn’t packing his bag to head to London and then instead spent the Saturday roaming around the School grounds or going to Hogsmeade at night with the promise from Niall that he would try to apparate back there (which he didn’t), Harry only felt his shitty mood taking over him. He thought that maybe Sunday coming along with the preparation for the Feast on the next day and having the company of Flitwick would help him, but it didn’t and he wasn’t much of a help to his colleague either, being more distracted than focused on his task at hand, thinking about Louis in London, where he could’ve been and what he could’ve been doing.

It sucked and Harry just wanted the start of the week to bring the prospect that by the end of it, he would have Louis with him again. Monday came and he was starting to feel a bit better, but his first class of the day in the morning, with his students barely awaken, was a complete downer and knocked Harry’s slightly better mood off for good.

The Hallowe’en Feast was his only hope that things could improve and Harry decided that he would try and make the best out of it, thinking about Louis’ words from his letter and thinking that, what the hell, he could do something different that Halloween for a change. For himself, to cheer him up, and obviously for Louis, who seemed very eager to see Harry in his uniform again. He couldn’t deny his boyfriend that, he reckoned.

Only problem, he didn’t have any of his old school uniform with him, and even if he had, that would certainly not fit him anymore. He knew his tie was somewhere in the bottom of his trunk, so that was a start. It wouldn’t be much of a problem for him, though, to transfigure a Slytherin jumper out of one of his old ones. He could wear it under his already black robe, only enchanting it to add a bit of green and the Slytherin crest on it, and voilà, he had his uniform ready for him to wear again.

As Louis had also asked him, he looked for his camera inside his trunk, easily fetching it and placing it on top of his desk. He got his wand in hand, enchanting the camera to snap the shutter after he had found a good pose and angle for the photo. That had made him feel a tad better about himself and for trying to do something nice to make up it for Louis for the time they were apart, and yet, it didn’t replace the feeling that even though he could have fun that night, he still missed Louis and would rather have been with him.

Trying to shake off those moping feelings, he got ready to head to the Great Hall and enjoy once and for all the night and the Feast. There was nothing that a good meal wouldn’t do to improve his mood. He left the room with a pat on Marcel’s head, receiving a loud hoot and the owl flapping his wings excitedly at him in return.

“If you think you’re getting any sweets today, you better take your beak out of your arse. I’m bringing you some pumpkin seeds, and that’s the best I can do.” Harry smirked at Marcel to see him turning his whole head with his big orange eyes staring right at him at the door.

“Okay, maybe a piece of pumpkin pie. Will that do?”

Marcel blinked slowly once and flapped his wings one more time.

“Good, now behave while I’m away.” Harry shook his head at how ridiculous and spoiled his pet was before he finally turned around and headed to the celebration.

The commotion towards the Great Hall around the corridors and the stairs was bigger than normal at that time of the night, a little later than the usual dinner time, but Harry could understand the students’ excitement. The school was fully decorated with floating pumpkins and bats flying around the ceiling and despite Harry’s not so efficient help the day before, he and Flitwick had actually managed to get everything ready and impeccable for the day.

Impeccable was also his “costume”, since most of the students who were walking around him started staring at him, at first confused because “ _who is that student? Doesn’t he look older than the 7th years_ ” and then in awe to find out “ _that’s professor Styles! For Merlin’s beard!_ ”. He was having too much fun with his own prank, smiling at the students who complimented him on his outfit and pleased to see how some Slytherins basically cheered at him for proudly sporting his House colours again.

As soon as Harry arrived at the staff table at the end of the Great Hall and Headmistress McGonagall announced the beginning of the Feast, Harry felt content to be there with his colleagues and students, enjoying the scrumptious meal prepared by the elves, chatting away with Longbottom, who at first was shocked to see Harry in a students uniform again but after a moment laughed at Harry’s cleverness, then started talking about how he had helped Hagrid pick up the pumpkins earlier that morning. Entertaining himself with the other professors and seeing his students satiate themselves with the sea of candies and sweets the elves kept sending to the Houses tables helped Harry settle the gloominess a bit. As the night went on and the students started to leave the Great Hall and go back to their dorms, Harry thought that was also his cue to get a good night’s sleep, not forgetting to take with him a piece of his pie for Marcel, of course.

The halls were already almost deserted on his way to his dorm and as he stepped down from the staircase and was near his corridor, he heard some very suspicious sounds coming from behind a statue.

He sighed quietly, slowed his pace and walked carefully towards where the sounds were coming from, one hand holding his pie and the other gripping his wand firmly in position. The closer he got, the better view he had of two bodies huddled together against the wall behind the statue. He rolled his eyes, not believing that he would have to deal with horny teenagers sneaking out almost past curfew time hooking up near his dorm.

He didn’t hesitate to whisper a _Lumos_ when he approached them so he could see the sneaky students better. “Aren’t you two supposed to be on your way back to your Tower already?” Harry announced himself, making the two students – two Gryffindor girls, jump away from each other.

Both of them had scared expressions on their faces and Harry only kept looking at them, his wand still pointed in their direction.

One of the girls – a curly redhead one with her face covered in freckles, tried to adjust her robe while the other, a brunette with short straight hair looked back skeptically at Harry.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the Dungeons?” The brunette one answered back at Harry, eyeing him from head to toe, probably noticing his Slytherin robes and making the assumption he was a student as well. “Why is a Slytherin roaming around the school both–”

She didn’t finish her sentence, interrupted by a elbow to her side from the other girl.

“That’s Professor Styles, Alice,” the red haired girl whispered, as if Harry wasn’t right in front of them.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Alice – and now that Harry looked better at her, he recognised it was Alice Bell, a Fifth year – spoke, leading her hand to cover her mouth, losing the fierce posture she had just a moment ago.

Harry arched a brow at her, not giving up his stance. “May I ask again what you two were still doing around here?”

“We… we were... I mean, you saw what we were doing,” the red haired girl tried to explain themselves, not one bit embarrassed, but not looking Harry directly in the eye either. Harry instantly identified her as Roxanne Weasley, also a Fifth year already known by her quick comebacks (a shared fame with her father, Harry had learned).

“Roxanne!” Alice exclaimed, “we’re gonna get detention for speaking up to a Professor, for Merlin’s sake.”

“Well, you’re gonna get detention either way, because all students are supposed to be back at their dorms in about five minutes and you both are well far from the Gryffindor Tower, so, curfew time is up for you, Ms. Bell and Ms. Weasley.” Harry braced himself to sound intimidating. He hated that part of his job, having to be stern with his students. But when they were breaking the rules, there wasn’t much he could do, even if he remembered very well how he used not to follow some of them back in his day, but once he became a Prefect and Head Boy, he had to be more reasonable and tough with his own school mates.

“We’re sorry, Sir! We were going back to our dorm soon, we promise!” Alice replied, a bit terrified.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong, Professor Styles, seriously,” Roxanne chimed in, “it’s Halloween and we just wanted to have a bit more of fun,” she tried to sound casual.

Harry sighed deeply because he understood them. He also wanted to have some fun that night, have an enjoyable evening. He actually did, but not as much as he had really wished. But for the girls, wanting to have more fun on Halloween night didn’t mean they were excused from being out of bed, near a Professor’s dorm, snogging.

“Everybody wants to have fun, Ms. Weasley, but that doesn’t mean we are all allowed to do it whenever and wherever we wish. Especially not near a Professor’s dorm, making out,” he pointed out.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t do it when you were a student too,” Roxanne gave him a cocky look. “You are even reminiscing your good old days wearing your nice Slytherin uniform, Professor, come on. I’m sure that back then you wouldn’t even notice us here. There’s no harm in what we were doing.”

Roxanne pulled Alice closer to her by interlocking their hands and Harry really wanted to be sympathetic, really wanted to give them a free pass because they seemed like good girls, only two young girls a bit in love who just wanted to have some time alone together away from prying eyes. At the same time, though, they had broken two rules: breaking curfew and hooking up around school (and if Harry was being honest he was a little envious because the girls could have the one they wanted with them right at that moment and Harry just wanted to be with Louis and he couldn’t).

“Back in the day I was also Prefect and Head Boy, so either way, Ms. Weasley, I wouldn’t have overlooked your and Ms. Bell’s behavior. Unfortunately, you both are getting detention and minus 5 points from Gryffindor each for trying to coax me into giving you an out.” Harry collected himself, focusing on what he was supposed to do with the girls, instead of trying to let them go unpunished.

“No!” Alice whined, dejectedly, letting go of Roxanne’s hand and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Oh, blimey, Professor Styles! I heard you were the cool one and that you used to be even cooler when you were a student!” Roxanne kept protesting her way out.

“And now I’m your teacher and if you keep trying to get yourself out of this situation, you’ll get an even worse detention. This is no excuse and you know the rules: no snogging around the corridors and no breaking curfew time.”

“As if you never dated around the school,” Roxanne scoffed. “It also seems he’s in need of a date right now,” she spoke in a lower tone towards Alice, who only widened her eyes and shook her head, whispering a reprehensive “Roxanne, stop” to her girlfriend.

Harry blinked slowly, trying not to let his student’s words get to him. That was out right disrespectful (and partially true, unfortunately, and he hated that she was right).

“Another 10 points from Gryffindor and you’ll be getting a week’s worth of detention cleaning the Trophy Halls. Now, off to your dorms and if I hear another complaint, I’ll be taking you directly to Professor Longbottom,” Harry said firmly, as sternly as possible, motioning his wand towards the corridor, hoping the girls would take the hint and be on their way.

Neither of them spoke again, only hooking their arms together and walking away from Harry and in the direction of the staircase.

Harry watched to make sure they were actually on their way back to the Gryffindor Tower and then finally let out a tired sigh.

Fuck, he really hated that part of his job.

And he hated even more that he let himself be taken aback by his student’s words that he needed to get a date.

He had a date, he had a boyfriend, for Merlin’s sake. He didn’t need to be so on edge because of that, because he hadn’t seen Louis in over a week now, letting it affect his perception of why he was punishing his students.

“Get a grip, Styles.” He shook his head, trying to shake away the feeling. He pocketed his wand back into his robe and finally started walking again back to his dorm.

Once inside, he left Marcel to eat the pumpkin pie he had brought and let himself fall back onto his bed, puffing annoyingly at the ceiling.

He just wanted to forget how frustrated he was, he just wanted to forget that he was missing Louis. He just wanted to be with Louis, even if it were for just a few hours and he couldn’t even have that for the next 5 days.

Marcel chirped from his bird stand after he had finished eating, and Harry looked back at him, still lying down. “What?”

The owl only tilted his head towards the big window at Harry’s room, as if indicating something outside in the dark sky.

“No, Marce. I can’t go to Louis right now,” he sat up, fidgeting with the hem of his robe. “It’s late and I have class in the afternoon tomorrow.”

Harry really hated it all, because now not only was he missing Louis and thinking about Marcel’s suggestion, but he was also feeling like his 18 year old self, wanting nothing more than just see his boyfriend again when he couldn’t.

Technically, Harry could. He wasn't 18 anymore. He wasn’t a student anymore (even if the uniform he was wearing made him feel otherwise), he didn’t need to actually be back at Hogwarts in the first hours of the morning to attend classes. If he managed to get back a couple of hours before his afternoon lecture, that was good enough and he knew he would be back even before if he stayed over at Louis’, because Louis would also have to work in the morning, so it was not like Harry could stay for longer.

Merlin, he was actually considering doing it right now, at almost half past ten at night. He didn’t even know if Louis would be awake or not, but he figured he wouldn’t mind Harry apparating at his flat. It would be a nice surprise, of course Louis would like it, especially knowing how Louis had also been missing him. Getting to spend a few hours together didn’t really have a downside, Harry reasoned.

“Damn it, Marcel, why do you have to be the bad side of my conscience?” Harry shook his head as he got up from his bed, walking closer to his owl. “If something goes bad, you’ll stay a week without blueberries and I’ll tell Louis to cut his cuddle time short with you when you go back to him.”

Marcel let out a long hoot and Harry rolled his eyes at him, knowing how dramatic his owl could be.

“I’ll thank you when I come back if Louis doesn’t kick me out for basically breaking into his flat. Now shush and sleep. Hopefully I’ll be back in the morning.” He patted Marcel on the top of his head once before he turned to look himself in the mirror close to his desk, seeing his reflection in his Slytherin uniform give him two thumbs up.

If he was going to show up at Louis’ unannounced, he could at least give him something he knew Louis wanted, so appearing still wearing his black and green robe was a go.

He only hoped he wasn’t too far off doing it only because he was being melodramatic for not spending a weekend with his boyfriend of ten months (if Louis complained about anything, Harry would just disguise his neediness with him being a thoughtful and attentive partner who wanted to pay the love of his life a nice surprise on their monthiversary – Merlin, he sounded like a fool in love. He really hoped Louis wouldn’t mind any of this at all, because he didn’t want to look even more ridiculous than he was already being).

Fixing his robe one last time, he looked around his room before he gathered the courage to actually do what he was about to. He glanced over at Marcel as he reached the door, seeing his bird opening and closing his eyes slowly, letting out very low coos, already getting ready to sleep. There wasn’t anything else for Harry to do other than leave and face the empty halls of the mostly dormant Castle and then the cold almost November breeze once he stepped outside the School grounds to apparate.

Harry was considerate enough to apparate outside Louis’ flat, in the entrance hall, hopeful that that late at night none of Louis’ neighbors who shared the floor with him would catch him appearing out of nowhere. He thought it was better than to just scare the shit out of Liam or Louis apparating in their living room or inside Louis’ bedroom. Knocking on the door and ringing the bell was enough to announce himself as soon as he planted his feet at Louis’ front door.

But it seemed it wasn’t enough to cause either of the flat’s occupants to come answer it. Should Harry go all the way down, where he would have to ring the buzzer of their intercom and announce himself properly, in case they were sleeping and didn’t hear Harry at the door? That would be too much work, Harry thought. It was just better to say fuck it and open their door anyway; a quick _Alohomora_ making the trick as he knocked once more and opened the door, calling for Louis as he stepped inside and closed it behind him, locking it back again. Louis did say before for him to magic his way in whenever needed, anyway.

The place was completely quiet and all lights turned off, which was a bit odd. Of course, that was the living room, both Liam and Louis could be sleeping in their respective bedrooms and that’s why the place was in silence. Although, Harry could almost feel the place was empty as he carefully walked towards the hallway that led to the rooms. He sneaked firstly at Louis’, whose door was slightly open. Louis slept with his door closed, so that meant he wasn’t there and it was only confirmed when he stuck his head inside and saw indeed no trace of Louis in there. He moved to Liam’s bedroom to find the same thing and as he walked back to the living room, Harry started to feel a little bit restless.

Nobody was home, at almost 11 pm on a Monday night – a school night Louis had to sleep early so he could go to work the next day. Liam worked at a recording studio and Harry never actually knew his work schedule, so, he didn’t have to worry about Liam now. But Louis…

Louis had never told Harry about him being out late during the week. Harry didn’t know Louis would have any plans of going out. He didn’t even know if Louis was out or if he hadn’t gone back home at all. Harry didn’t know about Louis’ whereabouts, for what reason Louis wasn’t at his flat or when he was supposed to be back and Harry didn’t know what to make of it.

He didn’t know what to do actually. He sat down on the couch, running a hand over his face then up to his hair, feeling his slightly longer locks, wishing they were back at their longest length so he could grip them and let out his frustration. Because, boy, was he frustrated. He had just wanted to make a nice surprise for Louis, never even considering what Louis would be doing, not really considering what Louis did whenever they weren’t together.

It was a fleet thought, one that Harry had never let take over his mind, but that right now was making him jitterish. Harry didn’t know what Louis’ life was like – what it was really like –  when they weren’t together. What he knew were parts that Louis decided to tell him and share with him, through their letters (that were somehow brief) and when they talked over the weekends spent together. If Louis did anything else outside of what he decided to share with Harry, Harry never knew about it.

It shouldn’t make him wonder if Louis was hiding things from him. Merlin, no, he didn’t want to go there. He didn’t want to doubt about Louis’ feelings and faithfulness. Harry trusted him and there wasn’t any doubt about how Louis felt for him, what Louis wanted to build with Harry. They had been together for ten months and even if in the beginning Harry did have his insecurities because of what they had gone through to get where they were, the months that followed were enough to erase all of it; Louis demonstrating time and time again he was there for Harry and wanted Harry with him was enough to help them grow together into a steady and committed relationship, even as hard as it was at times – like it was now.

There wasn’t any reason for Harry to be sad at that moment, thinking of things that didn’t even make sense. Louis, before he was his boyfriend, was his friend, his best friend and Harry was in his life a hundred percent and he knew that for Louis it was the same. Louis would never hide anything from him, or conceal parts of his life from when they weren’t together. Harry didn’t need to worry.

But even though, he did and he was getting nervous as the time passed. He was torn, because he could just have left and pretended he was never there, Louis didn’t even need to know he had been there. On the other hand, Harry needed to know what had happened, needed to know that Louis would come back home safe, if he would come back at all. Merlin, he was starting to get desperate now.

So, Harry stayed where he was, sitting on Louis’ couch, in Louis’ dark living room – he didn’t even bother to turn on the lights or even the TV set (it wouldn’t be of any use for him anyway), stupidly wearing his Hogwarts robe, feeling even more stupid for thinking he could make Louis a surprise when in fact now he was only anxiously waiting for his boyfriend to arrive and he didn’t even know what would happen after that. He didn’t even know how long it had gone by, he was certain he had drifted into small slumbers for a few minutes a couple of times and he was almost letting his eyes close again and give in into actually sleeping when he heard the sound of some shuffling at the door.

Harry got up in a jolt from the couch, standing in the middle of the living room when the lights were switched on and he could hear some keys jingling inside the bowl Louis kept by the door, could hear a heavy sigh and the sound of some shoes being kicked off and then some muffled footsteps approaching the living room.

It didn’t take long for Louis to appear into Harry’s eyesight and not even a second for Louis to actually notice Harry was standing there, stopping in his tracks and widening his eyes.

“Harry?”

Louis’ mouth was gaping and his brows furrowing, but he didn’t make a move towards Harry.

“Where have you been?” Harry didn’t even think about greeting Louis properly, worried and nervous as he was. He probably sounded too desperate, but he didn’t care. He had been waiting for what felt hours – and it had. The clock on the wall marked almost 1am and Harry had to control himself even more not to feel sick.

“What the fuck is going on?” Louis finally stepped forward, but not soothing his expression. “What year did I walk into? Am I back in 2012 or what? What are you doing here?”

He didn’t sound harsh, only very confused and Harry understood that, because he was too; he wanted to know where the hell his boyfriend had been all night long.

“What? I don’t underst– Louis, I’ve been waiting for you for hours, where the hell were you?” Harry sighed deeply.

“I was out with Liam, but that’s not…” Louis shook his head, coming closer to Harry, but still carefully. “Why have you been waiting for me for hours? Again, what are you doing here… in your old school uniform? Am I having a sick twisted deja-vu, because please, if you think this is the only way you get to break up with me, I swear to God…”

Harry eyes shot up and he was almost thrown back by Louis’ words. What even was he talking about? Why would Harry break up with him?

“No! Merlin, no, Louis! Why would you think I’d come here to break up with you?” Harry shook his head, taking a tentative step closer to Louis. “I would never, no. I came here for the exact opposite reason, only to find you weren’t here when you were supposed to.” Harry ran his hand through his hair, looking straight at Louis, hoping to see his expression become calmer.

“Well, last time you appeared unannounced at my flat in the middle of the night in your school uniform it was to break up with me, so what else did you want me to think?”

Louis had an eyebrow cocked up and his voice sounded dejected, and only then Harry understood what he was saying.

“Fuck, no. For fuck’s sake, Louis, that’s not what it looks like,” Harry ran both his hands through his hair, not believing he didn’t think it through, what it must’ve looked like for Louis to walk in into Harry and to see him dressed up like that, and obviously make a connection with what had happened with them almost 5 years before. “No, I wouldn’t repeat that, not in a million years. Fuck, no, I just…” He breathed in, nervously. “I wanted to make a surprise and you weren’t here, so I waited. Seriously, though, where have you been? Why weren’t you home tonight?” Harry insisted, inquisitively.

He saw Louis’ expression soften a bit, but only for a second, before noticing Louis inhaling sharply through his nose.

“What is this? An interrogatory? I already told you I was out with Liam, alright. There’s no need to get all,” he gestured in the general direction of Harry instead of speaking, “when I was just out for a few hours.” He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few steps to the couch and sitting there.

Harry let his arms down, slapping them against his thighs then placing them on his hips, in a frustrated manner.

“But why? I thought you’d be here. You have school in the morning, I never thought you’d– I was hoping to find you here but I’ve waited for hours and–”

“Goddamnit, Harold,” Louis interrupted him, his voice now a bit louder and noticeably annoyed. “I went out. I’m a grown arse adult who knows I have to wake up early, but I went out anyway and I’m sorry I kept you waiting, but how was I supposed to know you’d be coming over? You’ve never come over during the week, for fuck’s sake, because just like me, you have work in the next day. You don’t need to be pushy like this, I was just out with Liam.”

Louis was clearly irritated and Harry was starting to get too. Louis didn’t need to be angry the way he sounded, did he? Fuck, Harry just wanted to make something nice and now Louis was mad at him, explaining over and over that he had been out with Liam… but where was Liam?

“Where’s Liam, then?” Harry didn’t even notice his tone, surprised to have even let out that sudden thought.

Louis rolled his eyes and puffed, looking around the room and rubbing his hands over his thighs. “Why are you even…” He pinched the bridge of his nose, before he looked back at Harry, taking a second to collect himself. “He stupidly and drunkenly went back over to Sophia’s. I tried to convince him otherwise because his drunk _dumbarse_ can do some stupid shit, but he wouldn’t listen to me,” Louis sighed tiredly for what felt like the millionth time. “Why are you being like this, Harry? Fuck, you think I’m hiding something?” Louis sounded a bit calmer, but a tad hurt. Harry could see his blue eyes were fuming and he wasn’t happy at all.

Harry wasn’t happy either, even more now with Louis thinking that Harry was accusing him of hiding things. That was not what he wanted Louis to think, even though it had occurred to him during the night.

“I don’t!” Harry replied, getting worked up, irritated. “I’m not doubting anything, I’m just– fuck, Louis, what was I supposed to think with you not being at home? I never thought about you going out like this when you’re not with me, that was just it.” Harry tried to reason and calm himself. He took a deep breath and paced over the room, not sure that sitting beside a nervous Louis would do him any good.

“My life doesn’t stop when you’re not around, Harry, for God’s sake.” Louis said, stony-faced.

Harry stopped walking, astonished by Louis’ statement. “So that means you always go out and you don’t even bother to tell me? Because I’m sure I’ve heard only a handful of times from you that you’ve gone out with Liam or your colleagues from school.” Harry shot back, forgetting all about being calm, now downright feeling taken for granted, having his feelings and relationship with Louis belittled.

“What is this now?” Louis got up, letting his arms up and down frenetically. “Are you controlling me or what? How am I supposed to tell you everything I do when we can’t even see each other properly? It’s not like I can remember all the things I did during the week to tell you over a fucking letter.” Louis turned around, not facing Harry.

Harry wanted to scream, he really did. Fuck, all his worries from earlier were coming back and that small thought was taking over him and he didn’t want to fight. Bloody hell, not in his wildest dream had he seen his night ending up with him fighting with Louis. Louis wasn’t making it easier for them, though. Harry had only started asking him where he had been and if he hadn’t felt so offended by his boyfriend wanting to know normal and trivial things about what he did when they weren’t together, none of that would have happened.

(He also reckoned he shouldn’t have corned Louis like that, but he couldn’t actually blame himself for being worried, Louis had to at least understand that.)

But now, they were arguing over something else entirely and Harry knew, deep down he knew that some time or other, something like that would stir up. They were fine, they had been fine for ten months, but it was not like their routine and their lives wouldn’t catch up to them and strain their relationship. They could hide their frustration as much as they wanted, even when they were open to themselves and discussed their feelings, but somehow, Harry knew things would blow up.

“For fuck’s sake, Louis, I’m not controlling you! You can do whatever the fuck you want when you’re not with me, okay?” Harry didn’t hold himself back anymore, not even trying to sound calmer. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like you need to keep me updated about what you do every single day. I didn’t know you felt this corned. If you’re not happy with the way we’re doing things then just fucking say it. I thought I would do something different for a change, exactly because I know we can’t always have that and I am attacked like this only because I was worried about you.” Harry closed his eyes, lowering his head, trying not to storm out completely, but he was already feeling his nerves get to him. He could feel the burn behind his eyes and his heart sinking because of Louis’ words.

“Fuck,” he heard Louis say lowly. “Fucking hell, Harry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… just, why the fuck are we even fighting, seriously?” Harry felt Louis’ hand touching his chin and he instantly opened his eyes to look at Louis, to see him closer to him.

“I don’t know,” Harry shook his head, his voice very small. “I didn’t mean to start fighting. I didn’t mean for this at all. I just wanted to see you, Lou,” he chewed on his lips, trying not to cry. “Blimey, Louis, I really wanted to surprise you and have a nice night, spend a few hours with you, but, I can see this was a mistake.” He sighed, sniffing his nose to control himself.

“No, fuck, Haz,” Louis stepped completely inside Harry’s personal space, leading his hand to the back of Harry’s neck and the other enveloping him by the waist. “It’s not your fault, okay? This is on me, I’m sorry I got so defensive,” he spoke by Harry’s ear, his hand caressing the skin on his neck. “I was taken aback at first to see you here, especially like this and I guess I just, I don’t know. My instinct must be to protect myself and I took it out on you, with the way you started questioning me. We always do this, we start something out of nowhere and end up having silly fights. I’m sorry.”

Harry could feel Louis’ breathing against his neck, soothing Harry with his touch, but also trying to calm himself.

“I didn’t wanna fight, Lou. I didn’t mean to sound harsh on you. I was just worried,” Harry let his arms embrace Louis’ by his waist, distancing himself from him a bit just so he could look at Louis’ face. “I was worried because at first I didn’t know if you’d like to see me and then you weren’t here and, fuck, love, I just miss you so much. I got worried wondering where you’d be, what you’d be doing and if you were alright. I just got unreasonable, that’s what. I didn’t even notice how I sounded, or how I looked like for you. I wanted to come here because I missed you and this week without you has been the worst and I couldn’t bear the thought of spending another one without seeing you,” he took a deep breath, looking attentively at Louis. “If I’m being honest I’ve been feeling like this since we came back from our holiday and I just let it all bottle up. I just wanted to be with you to celebrate our tenth month together. I didn’t want to have a stupid fight.” Harry tried to give Louis a small smile, trying to deceive how his eyes were already filling up, not for anger now, but for how much he felt.

“Hey,” Louis let go of him to cradle Harry’s face with both his hands, running his thumb over his cheeks. “Don’t feel sorry for how you feel, okay? I’m sorry I just stormed at you for no reason. If I’m being honest too, this is also the result of my own bottled up feelings. I’ve been feeling the same, Haz, don’t doubt that for a minute. I miss you so bad and I might’ve disguised it this week with stress from the play, but in reality, I knew it was because we would have to be apart for longer than usual. I took Liam’s invitation without thinking it over, we just wanted to get smashed for different reasons, but even at the pub, I couldn’t. I didn’t even drink more than a pint, I wanted to come back home and be miserable alone, but I had to watch over Liam, so that’s why I was out this late.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself, Lou, I’m not mad becau–” Harry tried to let Louis know that it was alright, that it wasn’t really anyone’s fault how they had stirred up things between them that night.

“No, but I do,” Louis interrupted him, not leaving his gaze off Harry, those blue eyes now gleaming at him, “because I’ve said things to you without thinking. I do have a life when you’re not here Harry, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be part of it. That’s all I want, that’s what I want the most and I hate that I can’t have you with me all the time. I miss you every single day. I miss summer with you, and I think that’s what fucked us over.” He laughed slightly, making Harry smile brighter at him, because that’s exactly what Harry thought as well.

“I don’t regret spending every day of it with you, though,” Harry spoke, leaning forward to catch Louis’ lips with his briefly, already feeling the air around them lighter. They weren’t angry at each other anymore. There wasn’t even a reason for them to be to begin with. It had been the heat of the moment, the tension and the frustration they had accumulated that made them had an uncalled for argument. “It only made me realise how much I want to be with you and spend my days with you, Lou. If it’s possible, this summer made me fall even more in love with you,” Harry let out, unashamedly, “because you’ve made me happier. I couldn't even think, when we started this, when I came back to your life, that we would manage to get this far again. We’ve talked about this so many times, but I keep saying it because it’s true. Sometimes I still can’t believe we have this and that I’m lucky that you love me back.”

Louis led the pads of his thumbs rub under Harry’s eyes and Harry could feel his skin getting wetter, not even realizing he had shed a few tears. Louis opened a wide smile at him before kissing his lips again, running his hands back down to Harry’s neck. Harry squeezed him on his waist, giving him a cue to speak.

“And you think it has been different for me?” Louis shook his head slightly, his fingers playing with the short hair behind Harry’s neck, one of his favourite things to do since Harry had cut his hair. “Babe, ten months ago, I wouldn’t even think about opening my heart back to you, as scared as I was to get hurt again, but now… I can’t see myself happier than I already am. You make me the happiest, even when we argue like this, for something that… didn’t even make sense,” he let out a faint chuckle. “But that’s who we are, that’s how we are together and I wouldn’t change my time with you and our silly fights for anything, because that means I get to have you with me. Having you with me has made me the happiest I’ve been in a long time and if before I didn’t think I could let you in back in my life, couldn’t think I’d be able to let myself love you again, now I can’t think of myself not loving you. I love you and I’m sorry we had this stupid fight when you just wanted to make a nice surprise for me.” He nuzzled his nose against Harry’s cheek before kissing it and putting a small distance between them, his hand now running down to Harry’s robe, a finger tracing along the collar of Harry’s white shirt and then to his green and silver tie.

“I love you too, Lou, so much,” Harry placed one hand up on Louis’ face, gently caressing his cheek, then running his hand over Louis’ fringe that was falling from the beanie he was wearing. “All you said, I feel it and I feel so much for you, love. I only want to make you happy and I thought showing up here would make you feel that way today.” He sighed, a bit sadly, thinking how things had spun out of control.

“No, no, you’ve made me very happy,” Louis shook his head, “you always do. If we argued and said things we didn’t think through, I’m sorry, but let’s not let that get in our way. You’re here now and I am surprised. If I wasn’t so tense because of everything, if somehow you appearing here in your uniform again in the middle of the night didn’t bring back memories I thought were long forgotten, things would’ve gone differently, because, damn, I’m surprised and so glad that you’re here.”

“That was not my intention, I swear to Merlin,” Harry laughed, embarrassingly, kissing Louis on his cheek. “I didn’t even think about it, thankfully. I just came here in my robe because of you. I gave it a try for the Halloween Feast as you had suggested and when it became too much for me to bear that I missed you, I thought, why the hell not come here wearing it, since you seemed so eager to see me in it again?” Harry smirked smugly at him, seeing Louis’ eyes sparkle with mirth, feeling completely light now, no trace of their argument lingering around them.

“That was very thoughtful indeed. I see the photos I had asked for weren’t enough for you.” Louis kept running his fingers over Harry’s tie, biting down on his lip as he mischievously looked up at Harry through his lashes.

“The pictures are still there, but I thought me being here in person could, you know, make you even more eager,” Harry pinched Louis’ waist through the fabric of his jacket, earning a yelp in return. “But now, though, I don’t know, I don’t think it was worth all this fight.” Harry licked his lips, slowly, seeing Louis’ eyes follow the movement.

Harry knew exactly what he was doing to Louis and he didn’t even feel bad for it. If they could leave their argument behind, he would try it in any way. And if he could actually put his surprise in practice, since Louis had said he was indeed happy to see him there, nobody could blame him. They had an unpredictable predicament in their way that night, but nothing said they couldn’t go through with what Harry had planned.

“Stop being a fucking tease,” Louis slapped him on the arm, “you have no fucking idea what this uniform does to me. Don’t you fucking dare,” Louis announced without any restrain. It seemed he was on board with whatever Harry had in mind too. “This fucking outfit has haunted my wet dreams for almost ten years now, you’re not taking this away from me. The only time I thought something was going to happen with you wearing it, well, you know, things didn’t go exactly how we imagined, but now,” he shook his head, tsking with his tongue, wrapping Harry’s tie around his fingers and pulling at it slightly, making Harry lean forward, “I won’t let you get away with it.”

Louis got his lips on Harry’s, pressing them together for a moment before he nipped Harry’s bottom one, then licking at it and asking permission to let their tongues meet.

Harry held Louis firmly by his waist, allowing him to deepen the kiss, finally getting to taste him fully after days. He could never get enough of kissing Louis. Every time they did, even if it were small pecks or full on snogs, it rose something inside Harry that made him feel like he had finally found his place because he and Louis fit perfectly into each other’s lives.

There was a fire that ignited inside him that just couldn’t get enough of Louis, that needed to have Louis beside him, closer to him. Right now, it mixed with the one that burned because of their earlier argument, a bit of adrenaline still cursing through his veins. Whenever things got heated between them, Harry couldn’t contain feeling completely in love and sure that he got Louis and that Louis wanted him back. In that moment, though, the feeling was added with the residuals from their fight, and Harry decided to play with it a little.

Harry pulled back for a moment, eyeing Louis carefully, seeing his confused expression at the abrupt stop.

“You seem too eager, though,” Harry tried to sound a bit stern, testing his waters, “for someone who has made me wait all night, who had me worried sick for hours. You think it’s gonna be this easy?” He teased, wiggling his eyebrows at Louis.

“What?” Louis looked a little disoriented, his lips redder and plumper from kissing Harry.

“I think I should make you make it up to me,” Harry spoke slowly, his hand reaching out to Louis’ head to take off his beanie, throwing it to the couch and tangling his fingers in Louis’ locks.

“ _I_ should make it up to _you_?” Louis raised a brow at him. “You appear here, in your Slytherin uniform, making me believe for a second you’d break up with me, _again,_ and you really think I should be the one making it up?”

“I didn’t think this through, but you got worried for a minute, max,” he laughed, bringing Louis closer to him again. “I was worried for almost three hours,” he pouted, his hand sliding down behind Louis, going to grab at Louis’ bum.

“That’s not my fault,” he saw the way Louis bit down at his lips trying to refrain a moan from escaping his mouth. “You didn’t warn me, I couldn't know. Next time, really do try to come up with that freaking magical mobile I’ve asked you guys for ages so we can communicate. You’re the one who always have me waiting on you. I’m right here, yours to take, whenever,” Louis looked at him through his lashes, both his hands going down Harry’s arms until they could grab at his own arse over Harry’s palms. “What is one night for you when I have to wait a whole week to see you and touch you again, when now that you’re here, I can clearly see you’re able to come to London at your will, so I can only guess you only make me wait to torture me? You’re doing it again right now and you think you’ve got a say in what’s happening tonight?” Louis said, very slowly, his hands going up to Harry’s tie again, pretending to fix it around Harry’s neck, getting his face closer to his ear, leaving small kisses along his jaw.

Harry inhaled deeply, knowing very well that Louis was the one torturing him now, playing with him, inciting him. If Louis’ intention was to turn him on before Harry could do that to him, then he was already succeeding and he couldn’t let Louis have the upper hand.

Harry squeezed Louis’ bum again, rougher this time, actually lifting him up a bit to stand on his tiptoes. “You got what you wanted from me in the end, you have me in my uniform. Now, I get to choose what to do with you,” he said close to Louis’ ear, his tongue running a stripe behind his earlobe before he nibbled at it.

Louis finally let out the moan he had contained, pushing Harry away from him, his eyes wide with arousal already.

“How and where do you want me? We have the whole flat for ourselves tonight,” Louis smirked, not taking his eyes off Harry, taking him in from head to toe, stopping again at Harry’s face. Harry had an inkling he wasn’t actually looking right at his eyes. His gaze was a bit lower and if he were to guess, he knew Louis was focusing on his tie, getting too entertained with it before.

He knew just what to do with Louis then.

“Bed. Now.” Harry practically ordered, seeing the excitement in Louis’ eyes grow as he took him by the hand and guided them towards the bedroom.

“You know how I love it when you get a little rougher, right?” Louis spoke once they stepped inside. He turned on the lights and shrugged his jacket off from his shoulders, throwing it in the general direction of the bed, but letting it fall on the floor.

“That’s for making me wait.” Harry licked his lips as he watched Louis pull his jumper over his head, along with his white shirt under it.

“If that’s what it takes for you to take the reins, then babe, I’m gonna make you wait all night,” Louis joked, stepping closer to Harry.

“No door closed?” Harry questioned before Louis hooked his arms around his shoulder.

“Liam’s not coming back tonight, that’s for sure,” Louis smiled cockily. “The only ones we’ll probably be disturbing are my neighbors. They haven’t heard anything since summer, I think they can deal with it for one night again.” He didn’t waste another second to get his lips on Harry’s again, drawing him in for a deep kiss right away.

Harry let Louis kiss him, only revelling in Louis’ touch, in how their tongues glided against each other, mouths moving accordingly finding the perfect angle. Harry closed his eyes at the feeling, one hand securing Louis’ by his bare back and the other holding him by the back of his neck.

If Harry could, he would keep kissing Louis for eternity, only savouring the small moans and slick tongues together. That, though, would always cause Harry to grow harder, desperate to hear Louis moaning louder, desperate to get more of Louis around him, under or above him. And that was what was happening at that moment with the way he was feeling Louis’ skin under his touch, and with the way Louis had started to pull at Harry’s short hair, burying his hand in it, messing with it there.

Louis was the one to break their heated kiss, withdrawing himself to look at Harry with those blown out, now darkened blue irises.

“What do you want from me, babe?” Louis breathed in heavily, smiling at Harry, “tell me and I’ll do it.”

Harry moved his hands to the front of Louis’ chest, fingers tracing over his tattoos as he dove back in to kiss Louis on his neck. “Get on the bed, and take off your jeans and pants,” he murmured through his teeth nibbling at Louis’ skin.

“If you stop attacking my neck, I might,” Louis snorted, pushing Harry away gently.

Harry got both hands over Louis’ face, pecking across his face multiple times. “I’m sorry if I just can never get enough of you,” he finished with a small kiss on the tip of Louis’ nose. “On the bed, on your back, now.”

“That’s the Harry I want to see tonight.” Louis pinched Harry on his cheek and then led his hand to twist one of Harry’s nipple through his sweater before he stepped away from Harry and made his way to the bed, discarding his trousers, pants and socks on the floor.

Watching Louis’ naked self crawling over the bed made Harry get even hotter than he had already gotten from filthy kissing Louis and for the heavy school uniform he had on. He knew soon he would have to take off his own clothes but he couldn’t help himself but marvel at Louis’ body, getting ready to lie down on the bed, all exposed for him.

“Like this?” Louis asked, his hands roaming through his own skin, from his bare chest to his thighs, skipping his already half hard cock.

“Backup against the headboard, love,” Harry indicated, taking a step further, closer to the foot of the bed. Louis did as he was told, smiling back at Harry, raising a brow at him.

“Are you gonna do some kind of magic where you’re gonna get to fuck me still clothed or do you intend to do something about all this?” Louis gestured to Harry’s outfit.

“The clothes are for you, you choose what to do with them,” he replied, smiling coyly at Louis, batting his eyelashes at him. At the same time, he ran his right hand over his torso, playing with the tie for a bit and going down slowly until he could grope his bulge through the fabric of his slacks.

“Fuck,” Louis inhaled deeply, making his torso rise up and down. “I…” he bit down at his lip, dwelling on what he wanted for a second. “Take off everything, but leave the tie on and put back only the robe.”

Harry had to control himself at the mental image of him fucking Louis with his robe on, but still he could feel his twitching cock against his hand. He let go of his grip, not wanting to end the fun too soon.

He managed to nod at Louis, starting to slowly slide down his robe until it hit the floor. He then moved to undo his trousers, watching as Louis didn’t take his eyes off him, hungrily following Harry’s hand’s every move. He stepped out of them when he pulled them down along with his boxers and took off his boots, getting to hear Louis hitched breath at the sight of Harry’s now free and swelling cock.

“You’re gorgeous, babe,” Louis whispered under his breath, letting one of his hands play with his own nipple and the other searching for his cock.

Harry twitched his lips at that for a second, but he didn’t say anything against it. He would let Louis enjoy it while he could. He considered again what he wanted to do with him, though, now more determined to make Louis make it up to him. Later, he would take measures in his own hands.

“Yeah?” He instigated instead, now fumbling with the tie around his neck, loosening it so he could untie it and take off his sweater with his shirt.

“Always so gorgeous for me.” He heard Louis say again when he was pulling his top over his head, managing to leave the tie on as he did so.

“Only for you, always for you, love,” Harry replied, throwing the rest of his clothes on the floor, crouching down for a second to get his robe again in his hand.

He stopped for a moment before he put it back on, only to look at Louis’ state in front of him, spent and sprawled on the bed, lazily playing with himself, enjoying the view of a naked Harry.

“Love to see you like this, love to see you turning yourself on because of me,” Harry inhaled deeply, before he took his wand from inside his robe. “But that’s enough, Lou.” He gulped dryly as he pointed his wand towards Louis, getting him by surprise, causing him to stop jerking himself off.

With the wand, Harry made Louis lead both of his hands upwards, above his head and pinning them against the headboard of the bed.

“Fuck, Harold,” Louis laughed surprisedly.

“That’s for playing with yourself without asking me if you could.” Harry tried to put his robe on while holding his wand, at the same time trying to look as sexy as he could. He knew he wasn’t doing a good enough job at it, but he considered it a win when he watched as Louis’ cock twitched against his stomach.

“You’re being mean now, Harry,” Louis shook his head, “how am I supposed to control myself when I’ve got you all lean and hot, naked in front of me?” He tilted his head to the side, his breath getting faster.

“I know you can, Lou,” Harry winked at him, “but tonight you are really not helping yourself. I’m gonna have to be very, very careful with you.” Harry smirked, taking a small step towards the bed, kneeling on the mattress to hop onto it.

He kept his wand pointed at Louis’ wrist as he crawled over him. The closer he got, the more Louis tried to wiggle himself from the trapping spell.

“Fuck, Harry, I just wanna… let me touch you, let me pull at your tie.” Louis almost whined, lolling his head to the sides.

“You want my tie?” Harry finally settled himself on top of Louis’ legs, his cock almost touching Louis’, both of them so hard, Harry almost cried at the anticipation of having them sliding against each other. But that was for another time, he had other things in mind now.

Louis nodded eagerly at him and Harry smirked back, using his free hand to undo his tie completely.

“You’ll look good with it on you,” he said, getting the tie in hand and leading it to Louis.

Louis looked up as Harry moved the tie above his head, closing his eyes at the moment Harry hovered it above him. But Harry didn’t place it around his neck. Instead, he moved his wand, to point it to the tie, motioning it again towards Louis’ pinned wrists.

“ _Fuck,_ you wouldn’t dare...” Louis’ voice was wrecked when he realized what Harry was doing, opening his eyes again, biting his lips in excitement as he looked at Harry doing as he wished.

“Yes, I will. This is for not seeing each other over the weekend. You’ll have to be even more patient to touch me now.” Harry twisted his wand, making his tie round Louis’ wrists, tying them together on the headboard of the bed, for real this time.

“That was not only my fault, you know that,” Louis pouted, “c’mon, how will I get myself off while you fuck me?”

Harry let his wand fall on the bed once he saw Louis was well tied up. He smirked back at Louis, licking his lips.

“You won’t, because I won’t fuck you.”

Louis’ eyes widened. “You what?!”

Seeing Louis surprised at what Harry was about to do to him was one of the best things Harry got to experience. Even together for already ten months, he loved that he could always surprise Louis in someway. He hoped that for the rest of his life, he could keep doing that to him.

“I’m not fucking you,” he slid down over Louis’ lap, a mischievous grin on his face. “I’m gonna use you, fuck myself on your cock as I please,” his hands started going up and down Louis’ legs, massaging his thighs muscles as Harry began to kiss Louis’ chest, down to his belly, leaving a trace down his happy trail.

“Then you’ll let me jerk you off, please.” Harry could hear how desperate Louis was just to touch him and he knew he was leaving him completely on edge. And that was what he wanted – what they both did. He didn’t wait for almost three hours, imagining every improbable scenario as why Louis wasn’t at home for nothing.

“No,” Harry looked up at him as he reached Louis’ crouch, his stiff cock just a few centimeters from his mouth. “I’m gonna ride you ‘till you come inside me and then... I won’t come ‘till you do, and I won’t let you touch me. I won’t even touch myself.”

Louis let out a groan and Harry almost took pity on him, but he was enjoying himself too much, his own cock getting even harder at seeing Louis’ frustration.

“You are torturing me! This is torture, Harry. Fuck.” He looked up to see Louis’ face again, licking and nibbling at his lips desperately.

“I’m gonna torture myself more, believe me. But you’ll get me to come on your face, so I guess you’ll end up winning.” Harry paid attention again to Louis’ hard cock beside his face, inhaling deeply and nuzzling his nose against Louis’ hairy groin before he started kissing the underside of Louis’ swollen and red cock.

“Harry!” Louis cried out, writhing under Harry’s touch. This time, Harry decided it was enough of making Louis suffer, finally taking his cock inside his mouth, sucking gently at the tip before he sank deeper, bobbing his head up and down, twirling his tongue when he could, trying not to gag when he felt Louis bucking up his hips against his mouth.

With one hand, he held Louis by his hip, firmly, and with the other, he took his wand again. He got on his knees on the mattress with Louis’ legs between his, taking his mouth off Louis for a second so he could get his own cock free to charm it up with a cockring spell. Satisfied, he went back to work, swallowing Louis down hungrily. Louis kept moaning and fucking his hips against Harry’s mouth and Harry still sucked him off, sometimes taking his length all in and others only licking at the tip of his cock, already feeling some precome leak.

“I hate your mouth, fucking hell.” Louis whined pantly and Harry smiled with Louis’ cock in his mouth, knowing very well it was quite the opposite. He squeezed Louis’ waist with one hand as in an attempt to make him still. Louis then slowed the rocking of his hips a bit and Harry stopped holding him down. He let go of Louis again for a second, just to motion his wand to his now free hand, lubing it up.

“I should just stop buying lube, I don’t know why I even bother,” Louis scoffed, shaking his head. Harry took the opportunity to lean down and give a hard suck on Louis’ head and at the same time, led his lubed hand behind himself under his robe, starting fingering himself open.

“Just fucking kill me already, Harold, if it’s to torture me like this!” Louis sounded outraged, kicking his legs under Harry, bucking his hips up against Harry’s mouth again.

If it was to punish Harry for fingering himself while Louis couldn’t do anything, Harry only took it as an incentive to push his finger in and out of himself as well as swallowing Louis timely with his thrusts.

He knew he was bringing Louis over the edge and he tried as fast as he could to add another finger inside, scissoring himself as he bobbed his head on Louis’ cock, almost feeling his jaw slack, spit drooling over Louis for how long he had been sucking him off.

With a last lick of his tongue on the pulsing vein Louis had near his tip, Harry inserted a third finger, pulling off Louis and letting out a loud moan as he almost felt his fingers brushing over his prostate.

“Fucking hell, Harry, just… I’m holding myself here, just let me get inside you, I need it, need to come inside you.”

Harry understood Louis’ pleading because he too would soon need to come, his trapped cock was already hurting for how hard it had gotten and he just didn’t want to cry because of that. He wanted to cry for how out of himself Louis would make him feel, so he figured he was already open enough to take Louis in.

“Yeah, I need it too. I’m open now, lemme just,” Harry let out a long breath, getting his wand again in hand and protecting Louis’ cock quickly before he discarded it somewhere on the floor.

He crawled over Louis’ body again, straddling his lap, his knees on either side of Louis until he got to sit over Louis’ cock, taking a hold of it with one hand, giving it a few strokes, only to tease Louis a little more, receiving a pained moan in return. He then got his face closer to Louis’, his free hand resting over his cheek as he got their lips together and directed Louis’ cock inside his hole and finally started sinking down.

“Merlin,” Harry exhaled loudly at the feeling of finally fitting around Louis again.

“Ah, fuck,” Louis moaned against his lips as Harry waited a moment to adjust himself around Louis.

“I love you,” he managed to say as he felt Louis’ cock filling him up, stretching him open. It only made himself get hotter, not only because of Louis but also because of the heavy black robe Louis had made him wear, feeling his body get all sweaty already.

“Love you too,” Louis bit back, actually biting at Harry’s lips, “now start moving, for crying out loud,” he let out a small chuckle and Harry chuckled in return, but following Louis’ request.

Once he was fully settled with Louis inside him, he brought his hand back to his front, both of them now pressing themselves against Louis’ chest, getting the balance and impulse he needed to start moving on top of Louis. He couldn’t keep his hands still though; he started roaming them over Louis’ torso, getting to feel the stretch of his muscles, as they tensed up when he tentatively started fucking inside Harry when Harry sinking down on him wasn’t just enough friction. He could feel Louis’ breathing getting faster and erratic, as he let out whimpers and moans, asking Harry to move faster, deeper.

“I’m almost there, Harry, keep going, babe, fuck,” Louis sounded too worked up already, not able to do much but snap his hips against Harry’s arse, wiggling himself on his tied up wrists, trying to get any impulse he could, managing to find his prostate a few time, leaving Harry mewling at the sensation.

Harry captured his lips again, his hands cupping Louis’ face, putting all his strength on his legs to help him to keep rocking his hips, deepening the kiss when he suddenly sank down roughly and he felt Louis stilling under him and his mouth go slack against him, breathing in and out repeatedly.

“I love you so much,” Harry said, watching Louis ride out his orgasm, filling him up with his come.

“I…” Louis tried to say, “fuck, I love you too, so fucking much,” he smiled against Harry’s lips again, sighing tiredly but in satisfaction.

Harry couldn’t contain the fluttering inside his stomach and he almost had forgotten about his own cock, impossibly swollen and trapped between their bodies.

“Please, babe, you can come now, you’ve done so good,” Louis encouraged Harry, moving his head to nuzzle his nose along Harry’s jaw, “you’ve made me feel so good, love. Come, please,” he started leaving small kisses down Harry’s neck, then sucking and biting hard at his skin, making Harry moan deeply.

He had thrown his wand somewhere around the bedroom, so he would have to undo the charm with his own hand and it was actually a relief to put his hand on himself, murmuring the counterspell under his breath as he started jacking off, closing his eyes and throwing his head back.

“On me, please,” Louis pleaded, making Harry open his eyes and smile widely at him, nodding and finally pulling out from Louis, his already softening cock slipping out of his arse so Harry could get to a better kneeling position in front of Louis. He rapidly started jerking himself off with his cock right at Louis’ already open mouth, tongue darting out so he could take Harry’s come.

It took only a few seconds for Harry to feel the swirling feeling inside his lower stomach, making his whole body tremble and then starting to spill over Louis’ face, feeling the tip of Louis’ tongue lapping at the tip of his cock.

“Fuck!” He cried out as he jerked himself off until the last spurt of come came out, letting himself sink back on Louis’ lap, his head resting over Louis’ shoulder, catching his breath.

“This was so fucking hot, fucking hell,” Louis said and Harry felt him kissing the top of his head.

“You’re gonna get cum all over my hair,” Harry chuckled, but he couldn’t complain much since he could feel Louis’ cheek sticky with some of his own come that had dripped over there.

“Glad your hair is shorter, then. It’s easier to clean,” Louis laughed, “now, if you’d like me to help you, how about you untie me?”

Harry smiled and nodded, lifting himself from Louis’ body, leaving the bed for a moment to fetch his wand again and untie Louis’ wrists.

The tie fell on top of Louis head, making both of them laugh.

Louis twisted his wrists while Harry got the tie in his hands again.

“Did it hurt?” He asked, a little bit worried that he had tied Louis too tight, as he sat on the bed beside Louis again.

“Nah,” Louis smiled at him, “it’s good. Fuck, that was good, really,” he finally brought his hands to hold Harry by his waist, over his robe, gently massaging him there and bringing him closer.

“Glad you enjoyed it,” Harry smiled back, quickly pecking Louis on the lips, feeling his own drying come on his boyfriend’s face mixed with their sweat. He took the tie and rubbed it over Louis’ face to get the rough part of it off before he directed his wand to Louis’ face and cleansed it, and also himself and around the bed so they could lie in it without any mess.

“Now you ruined a very nice tie,” Louis tsked as he enveloped Harry fully in his arms, making him fall on top of him as he rolled them on their sides.

“Why? Are you thinking of using it again?” Harry teased, flicking all the lights off before he placed the wand and the tie on the nightstand behind him and then he faced Louis again to see him nodding. “Hm, good to know. Well, nothing magic can’t solve, then.”

“You know what else we could use?” Louis waggled his eyebrows at Harry as he started running his hand from under Harry’s robe, pulling it to wrap Harry’s body completely with it.

“You have a kink, you know that, right?” Harry joked, understanding what Louis was implying.

“I’m sure you’ll have one too once you see me wearing this, because, babe, the view of you riding me in it was just…” Louis shook his head, closing his eyes instead of talking.

Harry couldn’t contain the fondness spreading across his chest, leaning down to kiss over Louis’ closed lids, then the tip of his nose and finally pecking on his lips.

“One day, maybe, when I get the courage to bring this out again. I don’t think it will be soon, though. First I need to get over the fact that my students thought I was one of their peers while walking around the Castle in these.” Harry chuckled remembering his students’ reaction to see him in his Slytherin robe again

“I’m sure it was a sight,” Louis opened his eyes again, smirking at Harry.

“Stop it,” Harry pinched Louis’ waist, “I had to give detention to two girls because first, they were making out on the corridor past curfew, second because they thought I was a student and third because they basically said I needed to get laid.” He hid his face on the crook of Louis’ neck, embracing him completely in his arms as he got closer.

“No, they didn’t!” Louis sounded stunned, but Harry actually knew he was only taking the piss. “Well, they were right. You did need to get laid,” he finally let out a small laugh, confirming Harry’s suspicion and making him look back at him. “Are you feeling better though? Less tense and frustrated?”

Harry breathed in deeply, considering the night he had and how he was feeling. He couldn’t deny how better Louis had made him feel, now only feeling spent and a bit sore, but that would soon go away. The feeling he held onto was the one for how Louis got him in his arms, for how rested and taken care of he was, for how much he loved the man lying beside him and how much he didn’t want to leave him in a few hours.

“Yes, I am, thank you,” Harry kissed him on the cheek, “I just… I’m feeling so much better that I don’t even wanna think about leaving.”

“You don’t have to leave right now, you know that, right?” Louis gave him a serious look. “Let’s sleep it off and in the morning you go. We take a well deserved shower and have breakfast together and all that.”

Harry nodded, agreeing, but sighed sadly. If he was being honest, he wished he didn’t have to leave Louis’ side at all and have to wait a whole four days to see him again.

“I wish I didn’t have to, though. I wish I could go to bed and wake up with you every day,” Harry confessed, not really minding if he sounded clingy or not. Louis knew how much Harry missed him, how much he wanted to spend his days with him, and if Louis felt the same, he would understand how Harry was feeling.

It took a beat for Louis to speak again, clearing his throat before doing so. “You don’t need to anymore, if you don’t want to.” He propped his head on his hand, getting to a better position to look at Harry.

Harry furrowed his brows, not understanding what Louis was suggesting. “What? How, Lou? Because I still have to teach at Hogwarts every day and you live with Liam, I don’t see ho–”

“See, that’s the thing,” Louis snorted shortly, “remember how I said I went out with Liam and then we argued because of that and yada yada yada?”

Harry rolled his eyes and murmured a “yeah”, letting Louis to continue talking.

“Well, we went out because Liam got offered a permanent job with that DJ he had toured over the summer, to work as his sound engineer. So, he might take it and he will be travelling all around the world. It’s not like he’ll be living here anyway,” Louis explained and Harry felt himself getting a little jitterish because… was that, was that Louis really inviting Harry to move in with him?

“So, you’re saying Liam won’t be around?” Harry asked, fishing for Louis to actually say what he was hoping for.

“Nope,” Louis smiled, biting down at his bottom lip. “It hadn’t even crossed my mind when he told me that and then took me to the pub to celebrate. Later, he decided that he needed to talk to Sophia one last time if they were really through because he probably would never see her again, and I was trying to put some sense into his drunk self without any success and I ended up giving up and letting him deal with his own shit. Then you showed up and I got so caught up with you here, and now that you just said that… It got me thinking that maybe, if you want, of course...” He inhaled deeply, looking directly at Harry.

Harry knew Louis was trailing off, actually avoiding saying what he wanted, nervous to do so.

“If I want what, Lou?” Harry instigated, a bit playfully, running his fingers over the curve of Louis’ waist, teasingly.

Louis took another breath, rolling his eyes at Harry jokingly. “If you want to move in with me, you dork,” he let out, laughing. “I mean, only if you want and if it’s feasible for you. I don’t know how you’d actually do it, apparating every day or something else. It was just something that popped in me head while you were talking, because me too, Haz, I would want nothing more than just go to bed and wake up with you by my side every day.”

It was indescribable what Harry was feeling at that moment, seeing Louis actually asking him to move in with him, already thinking about how they would manage to do it if Harry wanted to do it.

Of course Harry would want to. Fuck, Harry wanted it more than anything, had wanted it for quite some time now and with an opportunity like that presenting itself for them, he would be really stupid to say no.

“It might sound crazy to say yes to this?” Harry finally said, a bit hesitant, but beaming at Louis.

“It does sound crazy, innit? Fuck, I don’t know, I didn’t think this through, Haz, you don’t have to say yes, obviously, but I just think it would be so much bet–”

Louis was starting to babble again. Harry locked their lips again to calm him down, letting his tongue meet Louis’ briefly, holding his face with one hand, gently.

“I’d say yes even if this is the stupidest and most reckless thing we might be doing, but, fuck it,” Harry laughed, pulling away from Louis, only to see his blue eyes full of glee. “We started this off in the craziest possible way, Lou. We’ve been through a lot but still we’ve managed to make it work, to make this relationship work. We had all odds against us, against our feelings but we did it and I’d do anything with you, I’ve told you this since the beginning. I want to share my life with you and if this is what will take us to start it, to see if we can really work living together, then let’s do it.” Harry poured it all out at once, trying to disguise his own nervousness.

Fuck, he was nervous to do this with Louis, not sure what the outcome of it would be, but they would have to try. If he was in it for it all and if Louis was also in it as he was saying, as he had demonstrated to Harry all these past months, then why wait any longer?

“We are completely out of our minds right now, but, fuck it,” Louis chuckled again, “I don’t think I can wait anymore either,” Louis said as if reading Harry’s mind, “we’ll deal with whatever we have to deal with when we come to it. We still have some time to think this over, because Liam is yet to say yes and also he won’t move out like, tomorrow. But I’m in this for real, Haz, if you want to, of course.” He breathed in, expectantly, smiling at Harry softly.

“I do and I am too, Lou. I won’t change my mind,” he beamed again, rubbing his thumb over Louis’ cheek. “What I said to you ten months ago, it still stands true and I haven’t changed my mind one bit. If anything, I’m even more sure that I want to be with you for as long as we can.”

“Me too,” Louis kissed Harry quickly, “and I won’t change my mind either, you can be sure of that. I didn’t change it ten months ago, I didn’t back down from anything and you’ve made me believe that what we have can grow even more, even with our ups and down, with our little and silly fights,” Louis ran his hand up Harry’s torso, caressing his chest over the two swallow birds he had tattooed over his collarbones. “We’re stubborn, but we know how to deal with ourselves and we just have to learn how to work together. I love you and I’ll love you even more, I’m sure.”

“Yeah,” Harry sounded hopeful, joyful to listen to Louis only confirm again what he already knew. “I love you too, and we can make it work,” he led his hand to run through Louis’ sweaty and messy hair, massaging his scalp. “We’ll figured this out as we go, together, okay?”

“Okay,” Louis smiled tiredly, but fondly at him. “Now, let’s just leave the rest of the thinking for the morning, how about that?”

Harry nodded, rubbing his nose against Louis’ in an Eskimo kiss. “Sounds good,” he sighed contently. “This is the first night of the rest of our nights together, Lou.”

“Are you coming back tomorrow, is that what you mean?” Louis teased, yawning a bit.

“Shut up and sleep, love,” Harry chuckled, distancing himself a bit just so he could get themselves under Louis’ duvet and then snuggling up closer to Louis, to sleep with him in his arms. “Goodnight, Lou.” He kissed his temple before turning around to let Louis spoon him from behind.

“Night, Haz. Love you,” Louis replied, kissing Harry over his clothed shoulder blades and squeezing his arm around Harry’s middle.

It would be the first night in over a week that Harry knew he would be able to sleep peacefully.


	7. December 2016

 “I can’t believe you did that,” Harry spoke, watching as Louis hung the ornament he had just showed him on one of the branches of the tree they had bought and were setting up in the living room of their flat.

 _Their flat_ , Harry let that thought fill him with joy. Every time he thought about it, had thought about for the past almost three weeks they had already been living together, it still felt surreal that he could call Louis’ flat his too.

“What?” Louis looked back at him after he fixed it and took a step backwards to check his work.

“You’re spending too much time with Niall, that’s what,” Harry shook his head, laughing. “He is the one who calls me _deer_ and now you’re just making fun of me,” he rolled his eyes, his hand reaching out to the silver ornament to feel the letters carved on it.

[ _Merry Christmas_ ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/454ac67d9b0b07ff17e32c026c728940/tumblr_p2qdp9ZABL1vnwncjo4_500.png)

_My Deer_

_Louis & Harry _

_2016_

“I’m not making fun of you, babe,” Louis placed a hand on the side of Harry’s face to make him turn to him. “You are my dear,” he kissed his cheek, “and Niall’s just clever enough to make a pun with your patronus, so it’s not my fault that it’s actually something endearing,” he smiled, pinching Harry’s cheek quickly as he finished cheerfully, “en _deer_ ing if I say so.”

“My patronus is not a deer, it’s a fawn, how many times do I have to say this?” Harry puffed annoyingly, but not really. He knew Louis was just teasing him.

“You want me to say that I’m _fawn_ d of you, then? I couldn’t carve that on the ornament, c’mon Haz,” Louis joked, poking him on his dimple. “Besides, fawns, deers, stags, they are all basically the same. Your patronus is still a baby, he can mature and grow up and–”

“I’ve already told you that’s not how it works. It won’t change like that,” Harry smiled a bit, “I’m not sure if it ever changed it would be for a deer anyway. I’m proud of it, though. I don’t know why you guys keep making fun of me.” He poked his tongue out at Louis.

“Because it _is_ fun, love,” Louis chuckled in return, shaking his head a bit. “C’mon, I just wanted to make something fun for us. You liked it, didn’t you?”

Harry couldn’t deny he had liked it, even with Louis taking it as a joke. That was how Louis was and he loved him for that, loved the ornament too.

“I loved it, yes.” Harry smiled back at him, turning the ornament around to see the back of it, with some other words inscribed on it.

[ _Our First Christmas_ ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/08fb45d0407665ab11563061e5929a13/tumblr_p2qdp9ZABL1vnwncjo1_500.png)

_Louis & Harry * December 2015 _

“I was torn between putting December or January, because the guy who was doing it asked me when we got married and it took me a minute to stop laughing and explain to him that we weren’t,” Louis snorted, “and then he asked when we got together and I was just… I mean, technically it was still December, right? I don’t think it makes much difference,” Louis shrugged, reaching out his finger to trace along the words around the ornament.

“I’d say it was December indeed,” Harry kissed Louis on his temple, “but, truly, it doesn’t matter. If you had put January instead, I would’ve loved it anyway. Thank you for being so thoughtful and buying this for us.”

“Well, that’s the least I can do, since I can’t make one like yours, with magic and shit,” Louis snickered, moving his hand to touch the ornaments Harry had made and enchanted.

It was one made of wood, [in the shape of a hollow heart](https://78.media.tumblr.com/147e97ea203ef8a034fd29e35fbefde9/tumblr_p2qdp9ZABL1vnwncjo3_500.png) where inside there were two silhouettes – of him and Louis, that Harry had charmed to make them move forward and backwards and when they’d meet in the middle, they would kiss and the words “Happy Christmas” would show up.

“Even Marcel got one, I still can’t believe it,” Louis chuckled again, now touching the other one also made of wood but [ in the shape of an owl ](https://78.media.tumblr.com/c57d379e0ab94b1a33e9d4892aa14a32/tumblr_p2qdp9ZABL1vnwncjo2_500.png), which represented Marcel. He even made it with a scarf where he could carve Marcel’s name on it and the wood bird would flap its wings from time to time (not that Harry had made it do it timely with his and Louis’ silhouette’s kisses, but he obviously did).

“Of course I did. Imagine his outrage when he’d notice he wasn’t in our tree.” Harry looked behind to see his own owl on the bird stand in the other corner of the living room.

Marcel let out a loud hoot noticing they were talking about him.

“He is too spoiled, seriously. Sometimes I think I got a two-for-one deal I wasn’t aware of,” Louis turned around to face the owl too. “I thought he would, you know, be less needy once he had you and I together, in the same place, but damn, he got even more clingy than before.” He took a few steps closer to where the bird was, scratching him on the top of his head when he approached him.

“That’s because he doesn’t want to share your attention with me.” Harry rolled his eyes as he saw his pet preen at Louis’ caress.

“He’s a spoiled needy son of an owl, that’s what he is,” Louis joked and Marcel widened his eyes at Louis, opening his wings and flapping them.

“Alright, buddy, Lou is joking, calm down,” Harry laughed at Marcel’s offended stance.

“I’m kidding, you old bird.” Louis patted Marcel’s head once before he walked back closer to Harry, taking in the tree in front of them one more time.

“See, that’s why it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to him,” Harry embraced Louis’ by his middle. “It looks nice, doesn’t it?” He asked, looking back at the tree.

It was decorated with other Christmas ornaments all over it, some white, red, and blue tinsel around it and a star on top. Harry had also charmed the tinsel to keep moving around the tree on its own and the star to keep turning around.

“It’s quite magical, I could say,” Louis answered in a joking tone, tickling Harry on his belly.

Before Harry could reply, they heard the buzzer from the intercom.

“That must be Niall,” Harry announced, looking at his watch on the arm that wasn’t holding Louis to see both hour and minute hands together, indicating Niall was there.

“I see he finally learned to be fucking polite instead of showing up in the middle of our living room unannounced,” Louis rolled his eyes before he let go of Harry and walked towards the intercom.

“He always warns me through the watch, though,” Harry laughed trying to defended his friend.

“Manchester United or City?” Louis said as he pressed the button to answer, without even asking who was buzzing them.

“Fuck you, Louis,” Niall’s Irish voice spoke through the speaker. “I don’t know the difference between them, you know that.”

“We talked about it last time you were here, Nialler, c’mon. You should already know this. Answer it or we won’t let you up.” Louis looked at Harry with a mischievous grin and Harry only shook his head at Louis’ antics.

“I think... Fuck, I’m gonna say…,” Niall was clearly taking his time to think about it before he answered. Harry knew how much he always tried to impress Louis with his muggle knowledge. “Merlin, I guess United?”

“Bing pot, Horan,” Louis laughed out loud. “Come on up,” he said before he buzzed Niall in.

“You’re making it harder for him,” Harry sat on the couch, watching Louis make his way towards him.

Louis cocked a brow at him as he leaned against the arm of the couch beside Harry. “Would you know the answer?”

“Obviously,” Harry snorted, “not because you don’t remind me of it almost everyday, or that I don’t remember how you had posters from the team and that Dave guy hung up on your bedroom wall back in Doncaster, or anything.”

“David Beckham, babe,” Louis ruffled his short hair playfully, “but yeah, that’s my boy,” he kissed his temple.

“Me or Beckham?” Harry looked at him teasingly.

“Once upon a time, it would’ve been Beckham, but now, I think I’ll have to make do with you.” Louis winked at Harry, pinching him on his thigh.

“Heey,” Harry protested as soon as the doorbell rang. Louis only cackled and got up, going to answer the door.

“Tommo!” Niall exclaimed once Louis opened it for him. Harry turned his face to see his friend from where he was sat on the couch, getting a glimpse of Louis and Niall hugging briefly.

“Hello there, Ireland,” Louis greeted him, giving space for Niall to get inside the flat and then closing the door.

They walked back to the living room and Harry got up to give Niall a hug too.

“Glad you could make it tonight, Ni,” he said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Merlin, was it difficult to let them give me the night off on Saturday, but I can always manage that,” Niall smiled at him. “But it’s December already, c’mon, there isn’t much to do this time of the year either way.”

“What is there to do anyway, Niall?” Louis inquired, walking behind their friend to get to Harry’s side.

“The day you get to know, is the day I’ll be dead,” he winked at Louis. “The important thing, though, is that I’m here and I brought your early Christmas gifts since I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

“We have two weeks ‘till Christmas, Niall. You could drop by at any moment and we’ll also be staying here before the New Year’s, so...” Harry replied.

“Nah, what would the fun be? I see your tree is already up, you can’t miss having my gift on it,” Niall grinned as he opened his long coat and fetched a package from inside, handing it to Harry. “Open it.”

Harry took it in his hands and did as his friend told, retrieving from inside two sets of decorative Christmas balls – one with two blue ones and another with two green ones.

“What’s this?” Louis asked observing the ornaments in Harry’s hands.

“They are balls, if you’re not acquainted with them, Louis, but I’m sure you are.” Niall rolled his eyes, sarcastically.

“I know they are balls, _Neil_ , shut up. But what are they for?” Louis sounded confused, looking from the balls to Niall.

“For the tree! Merlin, _Lewis_ , keep up,” Niall shook his head, snatching the balls from Harry’s hand. “For you to hang on your tree, you know, because, these two represent you,” he jingled the blue balls towards Louis’ direction before he walked up to the tree and put the balls there. “And the others represent Harry,” he did the same with the green pair, hanging them besides the other ones, “‘cause you know, you two live together, so there’s two pairs of balls in this flat right now.”

“For Merlin’s sake, Niall,” Harry closed his eyes, one hand rubbing over his eyebrows.

“That’s taking the couple ornaments too far, Horan,” Louis shook his head, “but I appreciate the sentiment,” he patted on Niall’s shoulder, laughing.

“I knew you’d be making sappy ornaments like these ones, I just wanted to bring a fun touch to your first tree together, so you’d never forget me.” Niall poked at Harry’s ornaments and when Marcel’s one flapped its wings, he scaredly stepped away from it. “Damn, even the wood version of your owl is bratty,” he furrowed his brows at it, warily.

Marcel chirped from his place, making the three of them look back at him.

“You really don’t wanna get on his bad side today, he’s already offended enough from Louis’ comments,” Harry stated.

“I won’t. I know he likes me,” Niall waved at Marcel. “This is a nice ornament, Marcel, you’re looking cool in it!” He shouted at the owl, giving him two thumbs up and Marcel scratched his beak under his wings, not paying much attention to them. “But anyway, ornaments aside, I also have another gift for you.” Niall turned back to face Harry and Louis in front of him.

“Niall, you know we’re not giving you anything, right?” Louis asked, in a joking tone. “Besides, you’ve already done enough. The balls, for fuck’s sake, and even arranging Harry with that Motorowl I’ve asked for so long.”

“You’re really going for Motorowl?” Niall snorted. “That’s really clever, Tommo, I have to give you that.”

“Lottie always took the piss out of me for it, but I think it was pretty smart of me, even though you decided to enchant the shittiest phone ever to exist.”

“It’s not shitty, it’s useful, Lou,” Harry chimed in, looking at the coffee table to see the old mobile that he had been using for the past three weeks to communicate with Louis when he was at Hogwarts.

Once Harry had finally moved in with Louis, almost two weeks after they had first discussed it, because Liam had to set his things and finally move out, then they had to start thinking about ways to actually do this living together thing. When they went out to celebrate Harry moving to London and Niall had tagged along and they were talking about what they could do to make their communication better, even suggesting making Louis a watch just like the one he and Niall shared, Louis brought up the mobile thing again. It hadn’t been the first time, not even that year (Harry remembered very well how in the past Louis had already pestered him about it, asking if they could ever use something similar to a phone to communicate with each other), but that had been the first time in front of Niall and Niall actually got really interested in the concept, thinking that maybe there was a way of doing something like that. A few days later, he popped up at their flat with an old flip phone in hand, telling them he and some colleagues at the Ministry had managed to charm it so it would send signals to other muggle phones and as it was a magical thing, Harry would have no problem using it at Hogwarts.

Merlin blessed Niall for that because it was saving Harry and Louis a lot of time and stress with useless arguments when they had a different schedules – avoiding what had happened on Halloween night.

“Compared to my iPhone, this thing is like, ancient, therefore it’s shitty. But, yeah, it serves its purposes, can’t deny it. Could be better and do much more, but since I’m not the one using it, I can’t complain,” Louis snickered.

“It was the best one I could find, I tried, c’mon. But now I’m gonna give you something even more useful.” Niall smiled at them again, putting his hand inside his coat once more.

He took a small red box from inside and popped it open in front of Harry.

Harry looked confused at the content inside it for a second and before he could say anything, Louis beat him to it.

“Are you asking my boyfriend to marry you, Niall?” Louis questioned, mockingly.

“That would be a shitty proposal because that’s my ring in there,” Harry laughed, but still looked warily at the box. “I’ve been missing this ring since last week, Niall! So, it was with you this whole time?”

“No! I’m not proposing, what the fuck Louis, but yeah,” Niall laughed faintly, bringing his free hand to scratch at the back of his neck, “I took it when I saw you had left it on the kitchen counter that night after preparing dinner, sorry about that.”

“For fuck’s sake, Niall. I almost yelled at Louis because I thought he had let it fall down the drain, not even an _accio ring_ had made it appear back.” Harry pinched the bridge of his nose.

“See! I told you it hadn’t been me, ha!” Louis sounded victorious beside him, elbowing Harry in his stomach slightly.

“Sorry for causing a domestic fight between you two, that wasn’t my intention,” Niall’s voice was apologetic, “in fact, I was trying to avoid you guys from having one, if I’m being honest.” He indicated Harry to take the box in his hand and Harry looked back at it, still not understanding what was Niall’s intention.

“Care to explain why you took my ring then?”

“Well, it’s your fault actually,” Niall ran his fingers through his now completely brunet hair before he fixed his glasses, “‘cause you’ve told me a few times that you were already getting tired of apparating everyday, so I just–”

“Wait, wait,” Louis interrupted Niall, “what was that? You’re tired of apparating?” He turned to Harry and Harry could see the puzzled expression on Louis’ face. “How’s that, you’ve never told me anything, H. I thought it was fine, that you were fine with moving here and doing that everyday. If it’s not, then why–”

“No, Louis!” Harry interrupted him, trying to stop Louis from talking and dwelling on anything as fast as he could. “That’s not it! It’s not a problem for me to apparate from here to Hogwarts and vice-verse.” He breathed in, trying to find the best words to say to Louis without causing anything between them.

“Niall literally said you were tired already of doing it,” Louis sent him a pointed look. “If us living together is hard on you, then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Louis, calm down, no, that’s not what I meant. Shit, I really didn’t mean to start a domestic between you.” Niall sounded a bit distressed and Harry was starting to get nervous too because that was all a misunderstanding.

“You’re not starting anything, Niall, chill,” Harry said, trying to give Niall a reassuring look and then turned back to Louis. “Lou, hear me out, okay? I’m not tired of living with you, this is the best thing we’ve done in a while even if it’s so recent. I’m not tired of apparating back and forth. What I told Niall was that I’d get tired after doing it all the time. It sometimes takes too much energy for doing it from such long distances in such short periods of time as I do, everyday. But I wouldn’t change a thing if it means I’m coming back to you every night, alright?” He practically blurted out, not giving Louis a cue to stop him and question anything.

“Harry,” Louis looked at him, attentively, inhaling deeply, “why didn’t you say so anyway? I noticed some nights you want to go to bed earlier but I just thought it’s because you’re tired from work and teaching, not from actually apparating. I didn’t know it caused you that, I’m sorry.” Louis placed a hand on Harry’s arm, rubbing it up and down through Harry’s jumper.

“You don’t have to say sorry, love,” Harry gave him a small smile, “I just didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to worry and rethink this whole living together thing, because now that I have it, I don’t want to give it up, you know?” Louis nodded at him, letting his hand down to intertwine with Harry’s. “I was already trying to find things to do that could help me feel less tired. I’ve heard yoga would be a nice thing to do, would help me gather my energies and whatnot.” Harry laughed, squeezing their hands together.

“You would totally do yoga,” Louis snorted, giving him a small peck on the cheek, settling Harry’s feelings that Louis had not gotten angry at him.

“Now that the love birds are fine again,” Niall called their attention back to him, “even if you’d still feel tired or not, I thought of a better solution for your problems, Hazza. And now it’s lying in that ring of yours.” He pointed at the box in Harry’s hand.

“Right. What’s it, Horan?” Harry asked back, still intrigued.

“I transformed it into a portkey.” Niall smiled proudly.

Harry was surprised. “You what?”

“Aren’t portkeys supposed to be old boots like the one we used to go to Ireland?” Louis asked, sounding confused too.

“Nah, it can be anything that you can touch. It could be your keys, it could be your own brand new shoes, any of Harry’s weird rings or even that ugly necklace he didn’t take off his neck for years,” Niall explained.

“Oi, that’s my necklace now!” Louis exclaimed, a bit offended.

“Those are rings Louis gave me, Niall, what the fuck!” Harry shot him an annoyed look.

“You guys have a weird and ugly sense of fashion accessories, that’s why you deserve each other. But anyhow,” Niall rolled his eyes at them, “it can be anything and I did it with Harold’s ring here.”

“But how? I mean, that’s great that you did, Ni, thank you, but I actually didn’t give it much thought because I knew I’d have to go through the Ministry’s bureaucracy bullshit to get the authorization for one, so that would be too much trouble, I guessed.” Harry was really curious about how Niall had managed get a portkey so fast.

“Perks of working inside the Ministry, my _deer_ ,” Niall smirked at him, glancing quickly at Louis’ ornament on the tree. “Nice one, by the way, Louis.”

Louis raised his free arm towards Niall and they high-fived. Harry rolled his eyes at them, playfully.

“You always manage to get everything you want from the Ministry, Niall, what the hell. I’m starting to think you’re the Minister yourself,” Louis commented.

Niall smiled smugly at him. “I could be and you still wouldn’t know.”

“But I would and that’s not the case anyway,” Harry mocked and Niall showed him the finger. “Now, Niall, okay, nice, thanks for the portkey, but how am I supposed to use my ring again without activating it?” He questioned, really intrigued of how it would work.

“Ah, that’s the best part,” Niall took the ring from inside the box and Harry almost gaped, thinking Niall would disappear right there in front of him, but it didn’t happen. “Me and my fellow colleagues came up with a way that you can activate it accordingly to where you want to go and that was easy, since your ring has this thing that can turn around itself and the carved words actually gave me a good idea,” Niall turned the ring in his fingers. “Now you see, if you want to go to Hogwarts, you just have to position the _peace_ written part turned upwards, and it will take you there, you know, because you’ll be hidden in the peaceful mountains of Scotland, far from chaotic London, even though your students can be hellish sometimes,” Niall laughed, showing Harry the PEACE part of his ring. “But now, when you’re at Hogwarts and you want to come back home, you just have to turn the _love_ written part up and you’ll show up here, in London, where the love of your life is, get it?” He wiggled his eyebrows at Harry, turning the ring around and displaying the LOVE part. “You just have to stop playing around with it, otherwise you’ll suddenly be brought back here or to Hogwarts without actually meaning to. So, Happy Christmas, you saps.” Niall gave the ring back to Harry with a sneaky smile.

“Fuck, Niall, that’s genius. Thank you, really.” Harry let go of Louis’ hand to put the ring back inside the little box, smiling to himself. He was taken aback by what Niall had done for him, for them. It must’ve taken a lot of work to do that and a lot of persuasion to get the people at the Ministry to agree to that.

“You do talk a lot of shit, Niall, but I agree with Haz, it sounds impressive. Thanks,” Louis added, sounding delighted.

“I like to take pride in my inventions, thank you very much and you’re very welcome.” Niall laughed, blushing at the compliments.

“But really, how did you manage to do this? The Ministry wouldn’t simply allow you to do this just because you work for them, Ni,” Harry inquired, seriously intrigued. It would’ve taken him weeks to get the approval from them to have a portkey for himself.

“Right, yeah, you’re right,” Niall laughed again, but now a bit nervously, “I mean, I don’t think you’d have much trouble, really Hazza, because you’re a teacher at Hogwarts, they know you and all, you have a good background, but me putting a good word in your favour obviously helped and also,” he ran a hand through his hair again, biting down at his bottom lip, “I might have added a couple of not really true details in there, saying that you were moving to London because you and Louis were getting married next month and me, as your best man, wanted to give it to you as your wedding gift soon, so, they accelerated the process.” Niall blurted out, his eyes behind his lenses not actually looking at neither Harry nor Louis directly.

“Niall!” Harry exclaimed exasperatedly.

Louis followed him. “What the fuck, man!”

“I’m sorry, I really am,” he raised his hands defensively. “But they aren’t actually gonna check if you’re getting married next month. Predicaments and life can get in the way, you don’t even need to get married soon, you know, or even at all. You’re living together, that’s what matters!” Niall was babbling desperately, and it was actually funny to see it, but Harry wanted to strangle his best friend for coming up with that.

He and Louis had been living together for less than a month and Niall was already mentioning marriage between them, what the fuck. Not that Harry hadn’t thought about getting married with Louis. Of course he had, he hadn’t said he would like to share a life with him if he didn’t see himself marrying him someday. Someday, not now, not after only a year together, a year they were still trying to find how they worked together and as young as they were, for Merlin’s sake.

“That’s why you thought of proposing first to Harry, ay?” Louis joked and Harry knew that was him disguising whatever was going on inside his mind, probably also nervous or feeling cornered about marriage.

“C’mon, man, that was not it!” Niall shook his head, embarrassed.

“Then this was you pinching your place as our best man, innit?” Louis cocked a brow at him. “What do you think, Haz? Do you really think Niall has what it takes to be our best man? Payno has a good chance too, I might say.”

Louis was joking again, but Harry noticed that it wasn’t from nervousness. He could feel deep down that there was an expectancy in his tone, as if saying “one day we’ll get married indeed” and that made Harry’s heart flutter a bit because, yeah, he could totally see that happening. Niall as his best man and all.

“Don’t know. Maybe he’s trying too hard, Lou,” Harry joined him in his banter. “First the phone, now the portkey. Niall, we already like you enough, you don’t need to woo your way towards it. Liam won’t try as hard as you.”

“Fuck you both,” Niall turned around, puffing irritatedly, but trying to contain a laughter. “I’m here, thinking about the well-being of your relationship and you two are only fucking with me. Watch me even appear at your wedding if you keep mocking me like this.”

Both Harry and Louis laughed out loud. Louis distanced himself from Harry and walked closer to Niall, throwing his arm around his shoulder, bringing him to sit on the couch.

“C’mon Nialler, we like to tease you because we love you, no one else would do that for us,” Louis assured him. “Not even Payno, and don’t even tell him this because he thinks he’s already done a grand gesture giving space for Harry to move in with me.”

Niall chuckled and sighed deeply, looking back at Harry. “If I’m not your best man, you’re fucked.”

“Who else would it be?” Harry shook his head, walking towards the couch too. “The only competition could be Marcel.” He took a look at his owl, who was absentmindedly scratching his claws under one of his wings, not paying them any mind.

“He would fight for it, though, I don’t doubt it.” Louis pointed out, making the three of them laugh and Marcel tilt his head at them, letting out a coo.

There wasn’t anything Harry enjoyed more than having a fun night with his favourite people. That had happened a few times since they had moved together and it was only one of the advantages of living with Louis in London.

It had been three weeks and indeed it was too soon to say anything, but Harry had no doubt it had been one of the best decisions he and Louis had made in their relationship so far. Even if there were small bumps on the way, like the apparition thing (Harry reckoned he should’ve said something, but he didn’t really want to spoil anything as recent as it was), or sometimes the things they still had to figure out how to make it work together, how to make their things work together. Harry getting used to Louis’ muggle routine, as well as Louis getting used to Harry’s wizarding one (which they had already given a test during summer, so it hadn’t been that difficult), or getting used to each other’s messes (Harry had what he called an organized chaos. Louis’, on the other hand, was literally a freaking mess – one that kept Harry wondering how Liam, the neat freak he knew he was, had put up with it for six years) and other little things, sometimes would cause one to bicker at the other, but most of the times they knew how to control themselves and settle whatever petty argument that could rise, the next minute everything’s gone and well between them again.

But it was in the little things that Harry was learning how to live with Louis, was still learning things about him and was falling more in love with him, certain that he wouldn’t trade what they had built so far and what they were facing now for anything else. That was all Harry had wanted and for almost a year, it only grew in him, this certainty that his life wouldn’t be the same without Louis. He couldn’t, in the span of three weeks only, imagine himself living without Louis again anymore, not coming to a home where he could have Louis in the hours he wasn’t working, coming to a bed where he could lay, sleep and cuddle with him every day, where he could have him any time he wanted. It was surreal, but it was true and enough for them and Harry couldn’t wait for what else was coming, couldn’t wait for the Holidays to come up so they could spend it together, properly this time.

A year before, Harry was spending Christmas with Louis, and things hadn’t gone as they had expected; now though, they were together again, but in the way Harry had wanted for so long and he hoped nothing could take it away from him. Decorating the tree and the house together that first weekend of December and making plans for the break on the days that followed gave Harry a sense of familiarity, of a bigger commitment than they already had and he could see his future like that, for the many years that were still to come.

Spending time with their families was something that didn’t scare Harry anymore, but he couldn’t lie that going back to the Tomlinson-Deakins for Louis’ birthday and Christmas day was almost like reliving a bad dream. But it wasn’t like that at all, because even if he considered what they had gone through last Christmas, even as bad as it was, Harry still thought it had been worth it, it had led them to where they were now and taking in everything, taking the time he spent with Louis’ family, he would never take that for granted, especially when they never treated him differently. That previous Holiday, Harry was only an acquaintance, Lottie’s teacher and friend, but he had already felt well welcomed by them, somehow feeling like he was family. This year, he was actually family and if he was being honest, he only felt the same way he did before, with Jay and Dan being so hospitable to him and Louis’ siblings being crazy over him, but also watching the girls a bit grown up and the baby twins even more alert and smart than the year before, and Lottie flourishing into the great witch Harry knew she would always be, so proud to see her find her first job working at Madam Primpernelle's (and being able to visit them more often in London).

The two days they spent with Louis’ family was a delight and Harry took the opportunity to actually take Louis to the small park on the corner of his street for his 25th birthday, alone this time, just for them to reminisce about the first time they had been there, five years before, where everything had actually started. He kinda felt stupid for repeating what his 17 year old self had done, but to see Louis’ eyes sparkle, sitting on that bench and receiving yet another book for his birthday (but this time a photo album with all the pictures they had taken from that year together), that was all Harry needed that Christmas (even if Louis insisted on giving him a Christmas gift after both of them had agreed that it wasn’t necessary – but Harry couldn’t deny he enjoyed the silver rose ring Louis had given him nevertheless).

Christmas’ afternoon had them going to Holmes Chapel so they could stay over for another couple of days with Harry’s family. Harry’s mom insisted on baking Louis a cake and have them all sing Happy Birthday for him again, which Louis didn’t complain, but found it quite amusing (and Harry couldn’t help his fondness at the sight of Louis fitting so well with his family). It had also been time for Louis and Harry’s father to finally meet, as it had been a while since Harry had actually seen Des, only exchanging letters with him after Harry came back to teach at Hogwarts due to his father’s work as a Dragonologist, not leaving them a lot of opportunities to meet and for Harry to actually introduce Louis to him. Des had showed up to take Harry and Gemma to a pub and there it was the opportunity for them to get together at last. It was kind of nerve-wracking for Harry, not really sure how his father would react to Louis, even though through the letters he had been okay with them. Fortunately, everything went well and having Louis getting along with his father while they got to know each other, while Harry told him about his job as a teacher and Gemma shared her stories from working at the Daily Prophet, was an even greater Christmas’ gift for him, apart from having all his family together and Louis by his side.

He knew, though, that having Louis beside him wasn’t just a Christmas gift or miracle, it wasn’t just a wish that had come true. It was something secure that they had worked together and hard to have. Coming back to London, to their home, to spend the New Year’s by themselves, as a first year anniversary, was proof enough that they were in a steady and committed relationship; they were exactly where they wanted to be and nothing would change much for them from then on. They could change, of course, time could pass, but what Harry felt for Louis and what he knew Louis also felt for him wouldn’t change, if anything it would only grow stronger, he was sure. For as long as Harry worked to make Louis happy, as happy as Louis made him, he knew there was nothing he would want more than spend the rest of his days with Louis, anyway he could, especially if it was snuggled up with him watching the fireworks in the London sky.

That New Year’s Eve was a cold one and they decided to stay in the flat, only watching the fireworks from their small balcony. They were pressed against the railing of the balcony, Louis in front of Harry, with a pint of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, wearing a thick denim jacket over a hoodie. Harry had a glass of the wine they had shared over dinner, wearing his big and fluffy beige coat. The spell he had cast around them was helping them feel not so cold, and the cozy layers of clothes were helping them get even warmer and cuddly against each other.

“You know, this time last year, I’m pretty sure we were entertained doing some other things instead of boringly waiting for the fireworks to start, Harold,” Louis scoffed, taking a drag from his cig.

Harry held him tighter by the waist, nuzzling his nose against the back of Louis’ neck, feeling the hair that was starting to get longer there, then going up to his ear, Louis’ stubble tickling his skin before he pressed a kiss on his cheek.

“You really want to go inside and miss this beautiful phenomenon? We already skipped it last year, Lou. We can alternate, how about that?” Harry giggled against Louis’ cheek, nibbling softly at his skin.

“If we were inside, we wouldn’t be in the cold, you wouldn’t need to charm us warm, we would be in the coziness of our bed, doing so much better and interesting things than looking at the sky waiting for some colourful shit to explode.” Louis shook his head, exhaling the smoke to the other side so it wouldn’t hit Harry’s face.

“C’mon, love,” Harry distanced himself, placing his hand on Louis’ waist to make him turn around and look at him. “We can do whatever we want after, you know I wouldn’t miss any celebratory sex with you.” Harry smirked at him.

Louis raised both eyebrows at him, tapping the butt of his fag on the ashtray that was placed on the railing, putting it out. “Is that a promise?”

“A New Year’s Eve promise, resolution even,” Harry pecked him on the lips, tasting the bitterness of the nicotine on them. He’d much rather kiss Louis when his lips were sweet, but he wouldn’t complain, not now. He knew Louis wasn’t ready to give up smoking completely, so he would let him, since it had become less of a habit lately. It was the last day of the year, he would let Louis have the last cigarette of the year in peace.

“Hm, I like the sound of that,” Louis beamed at him, still with their lips against each other. “I have a feeling our resolutions actually come true, so I’ll hold on to your words then.” He leaned backwards so he could look better at Harry.

“What was your resolution last year?” Harry asked, teasingly, only to incite Louis.

“Well,” he rolled his eyes fondly, “I don’t know, maybe it had to do with a long curly-haired bloke I had in my bed, about possibly having things work out for us, something like that I guess.”

Harry tried to contain himself from smiling widely at Louis. “Hmm, did it really come true then?”

“I’m afraid to say it didn’t.” Louis deadpanned.

Harry furrowed his brows, not sure where Louis was heading with that. He knew there was a catch, but he couldn’t place it. “Why not?”

“‘Cause the long curly-haired dude was gone and I got stuck with this incredibly similar and hot and sexy short-haired one,” Louis laughed and Harry inhaled sharply, blowing out raspberries.

“You arse!” He shook his head, taking a long sip from his wine and then placing the glass beside Louis’ ashtray.

“If you want to make that resolution you mentioned just minutes ago true and involve me arse in it, I’m up for it,” Louis said, cockily, also drinking from his beer.

“You are ridiculous.” Harry pecked on Louis’ cheek, taking his bottle of beer from his hand and putting it on the railing, allowing him to embrace Louis completely, pulling him closer against his chest.

“I love to tease you,” Louis spoke by his ears, placing a kiss on Harry’s jaw. “But seriously, now,” he pushed Harry away just a bit so they could look at each other again. “It did. Everything I wished for and even more came true this year.”

Harry opened a smile at him, feeling his cheeks get warmer. “Yeah?”

“Of course, babe,” Louis got his hands to run over Harry’s coat, playing with its collar. “We gave ourselves a chance, we worked through everything that could go against us to be together, we managed to stay true to ourselves and to accept our differences, and most importantly, we love each other. I really wouldn’t have asked for more than that and yet, here I have you, living with me, having to spend my days with you. I know we have a lot to work on still, every day, it’s something constant, but having you here with me, this is my resolution coming full circle one year later.”

“Is it everything you imagined?” Harry asked, not demanding, but just wanting to confirm what he already knew. It was never enough to have some reassurance of what they had. He was glad and thankful for all they had built, but to hear those words from Louis time and time again, it really was something Harry would never get over.

“Living with you?” Louis asked back, teasingly and Harry only nodded, allowing him to continue. “A fucking nightmare,” Louis cackled, throwing his head back.

“Hey!” Harry retaliated, pinching him on his love handles where his hands had settled themselves under Louis’ hoodie.

“Kidding, love,” Louis kissed the tip of his nose. “It’s everything I’ve imagined and more. Sometimes I can’t believe we’re doing so well. I know it’s only been a while, but you’re already a better roommate than Liam ever were, and I’ve lived with him for six years.”

“That’s only because you’re in love with me,” Harry poked his tongue out at him, playfully.

Louis laughed, making the crinkles by his eyes show and the blue in them shine. “Could be,” he licked his lips a bit shyly, “but you know, all this time I’ve lived with Liam, I’ve lived in a house, in a flat with him, only sharing the space with him, wanting to strangle him from day one ‘till the last day he was here,” he chuckled weakly, “but that’s ‘cause he’s my best friend, obviously. But with you, Haz, even as short as this almost two months have been, we’ve already built a home.”

Harry breathed deeply, taking in Louis’ words. Merlin, he loved that man in front of him so much. He was constantly surprised by things Louis said and demonstrated to him to show how much he appreciated being with Harry, how much he loved him. Right there, as the clock almost hit midnight marking the beginning of a New Year, Harry was sure he couldn’t possibly love Louis more, he couldn’t possibly want anything else but to share his life with him, share a home with him too.

“I love you,” he simply said, leading both of his hands to cup Louis’ face and locking their lips together, smoothly at first but then asking permission to deepen it.

Louis accepted it, enveloping his arms around Harry’s middle, making them so close not even the cold wind could pass through them.

It was there, kissing Louis, letting himself get lost in him, in his scent, in his taste, in his love, that the fireworks started to explode behind them across the sky and around the city.

Harry broke the kiss, rubbing his thumbs over Louis’ cheeks, smiling at him, sure his eyes were conveying how much he felt for him, sure that they were mimicking the soft gleam Louis’ blue ones had. “Happy New Year, Lou.”

“Happy New Year, Haz. I love you.” Louis nuzzled his face against Harry’s palm, smiling back at him. “Here’s to another great one for us, another one of many more.”

Harry drew back in for another kiss, letting one hand go of Louis only to slip it under his own coat to get his wand. He then started peppering kisses across Louis’ face as he twisted his wand around them, making small fireworks light up above them.

“You are unbelievable,” Louis snorted, pushing Harry away.

“You wanted more interesting fireworks, I made them for you,” Harry said, with a cocky smile.

“I didn’t want any fireworks, Harold. I wanted other interesting things, you frog face,” Louis rolled his eyes at him. “Now would be a great time to put that resolution into practice just so you pay for being a dork.” Louis pulled him by the hand and Harry followed suit, trying as best as he could to point his wand back at the bottle, glass and ashtray on the railing so he could bring them inside before they forgot about them entirely.

Once inside, Harry directed them to the coffee table in the middle of the living room, making them fall on top of it with a loud thud that woke up Marcel from his bird stand.

“Sorry, bud,” he apologised as Louis kept pulling him along the hall towards their bedroom.

Harry glanced over at Marcel one last time to see his bird blinking his big orange eyes at him once and sleepily tilting his head before he fell into slumber again. Harry quickly looked beside his owl to see the Globe he had given Louis as a birthday gift last year, spotting the Big Ben tower inside it.

None of them had touched the Globe in hours, but Harry knew why it was showing them it. They were exactly where they wanted to be. They were with each other. They were home, and that was enough. They were enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end of Part 4! Thank you so much for everyone who has read it, who has followed the series and stuck with our story for so long! It means so much to us!
> 
> We hope you enjoyed reading it and had fun with it as much as we did while writing! We love our favourite muggle and wizard boyfriends and we know they are going to have an incredible future together now that they finally got it all right! :D
> 
> Also, special thanks to Aster for helping me with one of the Christmas ornaments in this chapter! All of them can actually be found on Etsy for real here: [x](https://www.etsy.com/listing/483226899/merry-christmas-my-deer-ornament-lgbtq?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=gay%20couple%20ornament&ref=sr_gallery_45) / [x](https://www.etsy.com/listing/162997050/newlyweds-personalized-ornament-nickel?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=gay%20couple%20ornament&ref=sr_gallery_9) / [x](https://www.etsy.com/listing/254163148/couple-groom-and-groom-silhouette-wood?ref=shop_home_active_22) / [x](https://www.etsy.com/listing/167389639/wood-owl-ornament-personalized-name-boy?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=owl%20ornament&ref=sr_gallery_14)
> 
> You can check the playlist we made for the fic [here!](https://open.spotify.com/user/stephvicente/playlist/0CXo7wxTYW65LCdWNwaCnV?si=UdklB5-qS6Sb6HHvLBRF3A)
> 
> Don't forget to comment and let us know what you thought of this part and to leave kudos!
> 
> Thanks again! See you next time :D
> 
> Ste and Syn xx <3

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on [I Choose You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjE5D9cHiOk) by Sara Bareilles
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Read Part 1: [Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8635414)  
> Read Part 2: [Sick of Losing Soulmates (I Like you)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9518795)  
> Read Part 3: [If You Ever Wanna Be in Love](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9863852)
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